Gorman, Jones agree on doing 'less with less'

In one of their rare joint appearances on the same side of the table, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman and Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones gave pretty much the same message to residents at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum today: These are tough financial times and this community will feel the pain for years to come. Employee layoffs and cuts in services will happen next year for the schools, and for the county.

For the county, every revenue source except property taxes has seen a decline this year, Jones said. As a result, "we're going to have layoffs (expected to be 500-plus employees) and significant curtailment of services," he said.

Gorman said the "new economic reality" for the schools is to do "less with less."

The two were pretty chummy even when talking about the bone of contention between them - the county's cuts in funding for the schools. The county provides about a quarter of the the school system's operating funds. Last year, the county cut funding to the schools by $40 million. Gorman points out that other school systems throughout experienced much smaller cuts in local funding. Wake County cut its schools by $2.8 million. Guilford (Greensboro) got about the same as it did the previous year. "We wouldn't have laid off any individuals last year if we got the same cut as Wake (schools) did?" Gorman said.

But Gorman said he understood the situation the county was in, with service demands going up in other areas.

For his part, Jones noted that Wake has a different budgeting system. They put aside money for construction debt service in a debt service fund, which now has over $150 million. Mecklenburg pays for debt service out of its general funds each year so "operating funds and debt costs wind up competing with each other," he said. Wake also did property revaluations when property values were at their peak so Wake is getting more revenues from that stream and thus is in a better position financially.

Those at the forum peppered both with questions that showed their discontenct and had suggestions about how the county and the schools could do things better. Among them: Give more resources to education and look for other strategies to deal with some crimes other than jails. Jones said he was already planning to put on hold jail expansion plans so this might be "the time to have the discussion" of alternatives.

Gorman said no schools would close next year to deal with budget cuts. He's not recommending that. Residents didn't like the idea of laying off more teachers and suggested instead furloughs (Gorman said he liked that as an option but legislative approval is needed and it would take 26-27 days to make up the budget deficit through furloughs alone), longer days/four-day weeks (Gorman said some savings could accrue but there were also problems such as child-care for parents on that day kids weren't in school), 10 percent across the board salary cuts (Gorman said it would only get part of the needed money - about $60 million of the $80 million in anticipated cuts plus some cuts would constitute demotions and require hearings to resolve. But Gorman just doesn't favor across-the-board-cuts because he said it only puts off the need to "reduce the budget to meet the new economic reality" that will be around for the next five or so years, he said.)

Vote for me, because I'm not a Duke fan!

Who cares what a U.S. Senate candidate thinks about the issues?! As long as he's not a Duke fan!

Ahhh, what a candidate will do when he's losing a race he was supposed to win. Voters in Kentucky are really (not) wrestling with the things that matter, thanks to U.S. Senate candidate Trey Grayson. In a new ad, Grayson, a Republican, distinguishes himself from primary opponent Republican Rand Paul not over health care reform or the deficit but over ..... Duke vs. Kentucky basketball.

His ad shows grainy video of his opponent acknowledging he is a Duke fan. Grayson then swears his allegiance to the Wildcats. "I approved this message because I will always cheer for the Big Blue," Grayson says without a hint of tongue in cheek.

Maybe Grayson should be more concerned about the critical problems facing America and Kentucky, including education. His beloved Wildcats have one of the worst academic performances in the nation, with just 31 percent of players graduating. At Duke, 92 percent of players graduate. It's probably too much to ask for, but we hope this scheme backfires on Grayson.

Here's Grayson's pitiful ploy.




- Posted by The Observer's editorial board

Libraries slashing; who's out of touch?

Two items arrived in the e-mail inbox of our department today. One was from former N.C. Sen. Robert Pittenger, a Mecklenburg Republican.
He wrote:
"The liberal big government machine grows larger and larger, as it did
when I served - continuing to raise taxes and public spending at
alarming rates. The amazing thing is, whether the public favors their
actions or not, they do it anyway."

Not too long afterward, we received this, from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library:
"On Tuesday, March 16, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library learned that Mecklenburg County would be reducing the Library’s funding for Fiscal Year 2010 by 6.3 percent, or $2 million dollars, before June 30, 2010. To absorb a $2 million reduction in such a short period of time, the Library will need to lay off at least 140 employees, resulting in the closure of at least twelve Library locations, pending final library board approval."
While we agree with Pittenger that our governments need to root out any waste and fraud they can find, it's hard to see how closing 12 county libraries, or laying off up to 600 teachers for next year, as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools may have to do, equates to the "big government machine" growing "larger and larger."
"What will it take for the out of touch liberal establishment to
understand that they cannot go on brazenly
behaving so irresponsibly?" he asks.

Er, maybe the liberal establishment isn't the only one you could say is "out of touch"?

- Posted by The Observer editorial board

Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill?

One Charlotte-area congressman is pushing to put President Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., of Cherryville, today announced he has introduced a bill that would do just that.
“President Reagan was a modern day statesman, whose presidency transformed our nation’s political and economic thinking,” McHenry said in a press release.
Reagan would replace Ulysses S. Grant, widely regarded by historians as one of our weaker presidents. In fact, Grant seems like the most likely target if you're going to replace someone on a bill. We'd have a hard time arguing to bounce George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln or Benjamin Franklin. Even Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Jackson are pretty strong. If not Grant, maybe Reagan could replace William McKinley on the $500 bill.
What do you think? Reagan on the $50 bill? Reagan on a more prominent bill, or less prominent one? Or would you keep Reagan off any currency?
-- Posted by The Observer's editorial board

Kissell and McHenry claim bragging rights

It didn’t take long for some in our Congressional delegation – on different ends of the political spectrum, we might add – to get out the word about their rankings in, according to the Democrat, “one of the most respected nonpartisan publications in Washington.”

That Democrat is 8th district House member Larry Kissell who says the National Journal Magazine ranked him one of the most centrist members of Congress. “Kissell was the fourth closest to the ideological center as rated by the National Journal’s 2009 Vote Rating,” says Kissell’s press release Friday.

“I work hard to do what I think is right and put politics aside and I’m proud my voting record reflects that. I believe we can have differences and still meet in the middle,” Kissell said. “My top priority remains what is best for the people of the Eighth District. I will continue to cast my vote for what is best for them.”

His N.C. colleague, GOP representative Patrick McHenry, took a bow for being named the most conservative member of the N.C. congressional delegation, and for being ranked the 17th most conservative member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I’ve always voted my conscience and worked hard to best represent the interests of my district. In town hall after town hall, the people of Western North Carolina repeatedly told me that they were tired of the runaway spending in Washington, tired of the government takeovers of private industry, and did not want to see the health care system become the next target for a power grab by liberal Democrats,” McHenry said in his press release.

McHenry continued by saying “in order to turn our economy around we need to take an honest look at drastically lowering our deficit through entitlement reform, lowering taxes so that businesses can create jobs, and adopting an energy policy that fully utilizes the vast natural resources of our country.”

Since taking office in 2005, Congressman McHenry has consistently been ranked as one of the top conservative leaders of the U.S. House.

Gov. Perdue's reelection challenge

No wonder Gov. Bev Perdue has dubbed herself "the jobs governor." She has received fair warning from one of North Carolina's preeminent economists that jobs could be a big problem for her reelection efforts.

Wells Fargo chief economist John Silvia was at the Mecklenburg County commissioners' annual retreat this morning, giving a picture of the economic landscape. County manager Harry Jones asked Silvia and UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton how long it would be before Mecklenburg's unemployment rate would be back at pre-recession levels.

"Five to seven years," Connaughton said.

"I'll tell you what I told Bev Perdue," Silvia said: She's going to be running for reelection in 2012 with a higher unemployment rate than when she was elected. (The N.C. rate was 7.5 percent in November 2008; it's 11.2 percent now.)

His point was that that's probably going to be true no matter what she does, because of larger economic forces. Now if you're a sitting governor, that's a heck of a conundrum.

-- Posted by Taylor Batten

Wake schools' chief says bye, bye

Who couldn't see this coming? On Tuesday, Wake County schools superintendent Del Burns abruptly resigned saying he could no longer "in good conscience" work for the system he has served for decades.

What he actually meant was he could no longer work for the Wake County school board, whose new majority elected a few months ago has pretty much made his life hell by working to undo many of his initiatives and policies he's supported and that have won Wake schools national praise.

Some of those initiatives didn't sit well with some voters, especially year-round schools and policies to keep schools economically diverse. So in November, they ousted some board members and installed a new group that have steamrolled over opposition and made school board meetings a shout-fest at times. They've even made the old Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board meetings look tame by comparison.

Wake school board chair Ron Margiotta acted surprised (he's the only one) by the resignation and said he hoped Burns wasn't leaving because of the board's direction. He said he'll ask Burns, who assumed the superintendent duties in July 2006 and is under contract through June 2013, to reconsider.

Good luck. But for now the state's largest school system (CMS is second largest) has a job search ahead.

Information at her fingertips

From Steve Thomma's McClatchy story today on whether Palin might run for the White House:

"Asked how she would make the decision, Palin said she 'thankfully' has plenty of time. She noted other potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination know more about the issues.

" 'Right now I'm looking at ... other potential candidates out there who are strong. They're in a position of having kind of this luxury of having more information at their fingertips right now.'

Photos from Huffington Post

Team Supreme Court?

This funny (doctored) photo of the nine Supreme Court justices is making the rounds on the Internet. Well, maybe not so funny....