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Mecklenburg County budget cuts: How will they impact you?

By Michael Handy - bio l email

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - This week's water cooler talk at Mecklenburg County offices likely will be all about the massive round of budget cuts announced Friday by County Manager Harry Jones.

Jones said the county must cut more than $17 million in spending from the current year's budget.  Plus, he told all agencies to prepare for a combined $70 million gap in 2010.

Jones already ordered budget cuts across every department, ranging from 10 to 20 percent, but what do these cuts really mean to you and me?

One of the biggest losers and perhaps the one affecting the most people is Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.  The system was told to give back $2.5 million from its current budget and to prepare for even bigger cuts in 2010.  That would force teacher eliminations and could mean more cuts across the entire system.

If your local ball field has a working set of lights, consider yourself lucky.  27 other county-owned fields will go without lights until the economic crisis is over.  It is just one part of the $913,180 being taken away from Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation.

Park and Recreation also is cutting back on its investment in the restoration of the Little Sugar Creek Greenway.  The county will finish the work it already paid for, but everything else will have to wait until finances improve.

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office rounds out the list, but it is taking the biggest hit at $3,360,872.  That will mean a delay in the opening of the Youthful Offender Facility, plus the office will postpone the hiring of 56 detention officers.

Click the red camera icon to watch Michael Handy's report which aired during WBTV News at 6:30 p.m.