...it's a good idea...
is a Board Member of the (partly publicly funded) Greensboro Partnership,
which gave the Quarter Cent Tax Committee $10,500
The tax is needed to help pay debt obligations, approved by county voters, for more than $650 million in bond projects.
about $300 of the $650 million that hasn't been borrowed yet?
Those projects include parks, school construction, expansion at GTCC and the new Guilford County jail.
They are all worthy expenditures...
Do schools with flat screen TVs make better students or do teachers and parents?
Should Guilford County tax and borrow for parks
while facing what looks like at least a $73 million 2011 budget deficit?
is naive at best.
...the Guilford County Board of Commissioners
can spend that $12 million on anything they like...
They could buy Bentleys for all the department heads.
They could hire all the ex-commissioners they could find
and pay them exorbitant sums of money,
for jobs that don't now exist in county government.
They can spend it any way they see fit.
John Hammer
It would rise only 5 cents if the sales tax passes.
Where is the News & Record's independent analysis
of how much taxes increases would be required?
Has the News & Record reported what the expected 2011 shortfall is expected to be?
Is the Editorial Board aware of how much savings the county is burning through?
...Opponents have criticized the county commissioners for not cutting more spending. But, on the whole, the board has made good-faith efforts to trim budgets. There's only so much cutting they can do before they begin to jeopardize critical services.
...the quarter-cent increase is a pragmatic, relatively painless way to meet obligations the county will have to address, sooner or later, one way or the other.
if it doesn't consider not borrowing the money that hasn't been borrowed yet?
It'll cost us now. But it'll pay in the long run.
Greensboro News & Record Editorial Board
that the bonds had to be sold.
He said the bonds did not have to be sold,
and he thought the bonds shouldn't be sold until the economy improved.
Why didn't the News & Record Editorial Board mention not borrowing the money?
...Bill Bencini questioned whether the school system
needed to build $400 million worth of schools right now.
Does the News & Record Editorial Board believe we need to borrow the money now?
The bonds don't ever have to be sold,
but the county has 10 years in which to sell the bonds if it chooses to do so.
The bonds passed in 2008, so up until 2018, the county can sell the bonds whenever it likes.
Should the News & Record disclose that Editorial Board Member Robin Saul,
is a Board Member of the (partly publicly funded) Greensboro Partnership,
which gave the Quarter Cent Tax Committee $10,500,
whose Action Greensboro gave the Bonds for Schools Committee $70,000?
If it takes five years for the economy to improve,
then waiting five years should not be a problem.
Should taxes be raised on everyone in Guilford County
so that some kids can attend an outrageously expensive high school?
Is that even fair to all the other students in Guilford County?
...the board could decide to sell all the bonds as soon as possible
and cut spending to cover the increased debt,
or decide not to sell any.
John Hammer
Rhino
Should the News & Record disclose that Editorial Board Member Robin Saul,
is a Board Member of the (partly publicly funded) Greensboro Partnership,
which gave the Quarter Cent Tax Committee $10,500
whose Action Greensboro gave the Bonds for Schools Committee $70,000?
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