By Tom Roussey - bio l email
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Tuesday night there was information, talk, and even one clash over the Mecklenburg County budget mess.
Commissioners held their regular meeting in the midst of a process that could lead to up to $95 million dollars being cut from next fiscal year's budget. The new fiscal year starts July 1st.
Here's some of what we learned and heard in the meeting:
Things may get worse.
The county manager expects to have to make nearly $100 million in budget cuts for next fiscal year. But county commission chair Jennifer Roberts pointed out the county gets a lot of money from the state, and the state's budget numbers won't be in until mid to late summer.
If the state numbers are bad, that could make a bad situation worse.
The county underestimated how much in local sales taxes it would get this year.
The county underestimated by $20 million how much in sales taxes would come in. That was part of the reason why libraries, park and rec, schools, and other areas were cut recently for this fiscal year, even though there's only a few months left in it.
The county manager says he'll try to stop that from happening again next year.
There's a lot of frustration out there over these cuts.
Besides frustration by the public over libraries, a heated exchange happened Tuesday night between a commissioner and a library board of trustees member.
Commissioner George Dunlap said he felt like the board had insinuated the commissioners had decided to close a bunch of libraries, when really the commissioners set the amount of money libraries get while the board decides what to do with it.
Dunlap: "I was deeply hurt by the fact that this board did not correct misinformation put out in this community about whose responsibility it was to close libraries."
In response, Board of Trustees member and former county commissioner Darrel Williams: "I guess I'm trying to understand where this 'general public' started saying that the county commission made that decision. I haven't felt that."
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