GOP commissioners say $427 million package is too costly
Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005
`Vote no’ campaign begins on bonds
CARRIE LEVINE
Staff Writer
Usually, politicians want your vote for something.
But three Republican Mecklenburg County commissioners have a different strategy.
They want you to vote against $427 million in school bonds on the November ballot.
Their campaign against the bonds is unusual because the county commissioners themselves set the amount to be placed on the ballot.
But the three Republicans — Jim Puckett, Dan Bishop and Bill James — thought the board should have asked voters for millions of dollars less, and they urged the board’s six Democrats to approve a lower amount.
They did not prevail, and now say voters should send a message by voting no.
“Almost always, these bond packages are unanimous or nearly unanimous (among board members),” Puckett said. “This one wasn’t. I hope the public will notice that.”
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Puckett said voters no longer can afford tax increases and are ready to hear about ways to cut spending, even for schools.
Commissioners Chairman Parks Helms, a Democrat, said Republicans will promise to issue another type of debt — one that does not need voter approval — to build schools in the suburbs needed to meet the needs of growth.
But renovations to older inner-city schools will be left out, he said.
“The message is, we’re going to discriminate against inner-city schools,” Helms said.
Republicans say the opposite is true: The renovations to inner-city schools are included in the bond package to make it more palatable to urban voters, and those repairs represent unnecessary spending.
“We can’t afford to do things that we don’t need to do while we have grossly overcrowded schools on the fringes of the county,” Republican Dan Bishop said.
Commissioners vice chair Wilhelmenia Rembert, a Democrat, said the public has a mixed view of CMS, and building support for the bond package will not be easy.