The Greensboro City Council appears to be leaning in favor of preserving a school crossing guard program, although City Manager Rashad Young has indicated that he would like Guilford County, which finances the public school system, to take responsibility for it.
“I drove some of the school crossing guard locations on Lee Street,” Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan said following the release of the proposed budget today. “It’s a busy time of day. The natural inclination of the child is to beat the car…. I don’t think we should put the children at the risk because the county refuses to step up.”
At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small, District 2 Councilman Jim Kee and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny indicated they also favor preserving the program.
District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade, part of the council’s conservative faction, said if the city doesn’t cut the strings this year the county will never take responsibility for it. As a compromise, she said the city should offer to pay for half of the program's cost in the coming budget year before divesting completely the following year.
In another area in which the city is at odds with the county, Young said there remains a $636,000 gap between the $1.8 million contribution the city wants from the county to help pay for the library system and the $1.1 million amount the county has offered to pay. If the county refuses to come through, Young has said the city will have to consider either charging county residents $175 per year for a library card or eliminate a branch library and table plans to build the new Lake Jeanette branch.
The flat-tax budget delivered to the council by Young includes an 8.8 percent increase in water/sewer rates to pay for expansion, repair of deteriorating lines and compliance with new regulations under the Jordan Lake Rules.
Young also presented an alternate plan providing a half-cent tax cut requested by at-large Councilman Danny Thompson. The tax cut would reduce revenue by $1.2 million, and Young presented a schedule of spending cuts that would enable the tax cut, including to a workers compensation fund, a solid waste management fund, the Downtown Greensboro Inc. Project Fund and the Neighborhood Small Projects Fund.
District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny, who is positioned as a moderate conservative on the current council, savaged the idea of a tax cut. Citing a proposal to eliminate loose leaf collection, a program that benefits homeowners, Matheny estimated that the tax cut would amount to about $10 for the average resident, and said it would cost more than that to buy garbage bags to collect the leaves.
“What does $10 mean to you?” he said, addressing residents. “What are you willing to give up? I get the fact that you like loose-leaf pickup.”
Perkins proposed a solution to maintain the school crossing guard program, suggesting that the current tax rate be maintained, and some of the reductions such as the Worker’s Compensation Fund that Young has suggesting cutting to allow a tax cut instead be reduced in order to allow the city to keep paying for school crossing guards.
Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Ed Wolverton said after the meeting that the allocation for the Project Fund under consideration was established by the city years ago at roughly the amount that the city paid for downtown projects. The money is currently targeted for a façade grant program to renovate buildings, underwriting a historic preservation tax credit, geo-coding software for the nonprofit’s downtown online guide and hanging flower baskets.
“We’re having success downtown,” Wolverton said. “We’ve grown the tax base $248 million in the last six years. As the tax base grows, that creates revenues for the city. Maintaining the fund is a good investment for the city.”
The proposed budget presented today restores funding for the summer playground program for the 2010-2011 budget year, although Young said he would like to eliminate it the following year. With summer around the corner, the city manager said staff will likely monitor the program before making a final decision to do away with it down the line.
The proposed budget includes several service changes to save the city money:
• Bulk trash pickup would be changed from weekly to every other week;
• Lake Higgins would only be open only on Fridays and Saturdays;
• Kayak and canoe rentals would be eliminated at Lake Higgins; those activities would still take place at Lake Brandt and Lake Townsend;
• Hours at lakes would be reduced to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with one late night per week until 11 p.m.
• Temporary parks and recreation positions would be eliminated, including nine positions to staff weekend tournaments at Carolyn Allen Park;
• Funding for three cultural festivals – Chinese New Year, the Guilford Native American Cultural Festival and the African-American Heritage Extravaganza – would be eliminated;
• Two positions would be cut at the Greensboro Historical Museum, reducing its ability to provide school tours and traveling trunk shows;
• The Automated Fingerprint ID System contract with Guilford County would be eliminated; and
• Police transport to Guilford Mental Health for non-violent persons would be eliminated.
Additional cost savings would be achieved by consolidating the housing & community development and planning departments.
Young is proposing one significant staff investment: The number and rank of officers assigned to the police department’s internal affairs division would be increased to help expedite investigations into citizen complaints.
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