Charlotte's Latest Tax Rip-Off

Get ready for ANOTHER tax increase that will be hitting your pocket book or wallet soon. The Charlotte City Council a.k.a. The Communist Party is attempting to sell our State Legislature another tax scheme designed to use money meant for roads and transportation and use it to fill the pockets of uptown developers. The plan is to divert money from roads and transportation and use if to build things uptown that will mainly serve the wealthy uptown fat cats and their cronies. If they get thier way they will raise the car rental tax from 11 to 16 percent and raise the car tax at the airport to 27 percent including additional airport fees. More than half of the people that rent cars in Charlotte are local residents so this is not just something that will effect out-of-town travelers. After the recent 5 percent increase in property taxes this plan boggles the mind of anyone with common sense. I am in no way against people developing the uptown. I am just against uptown developers using corrupt government officials to steal my money and make me pay for their projects.

Another July 4th, Another Riot in Charlotte

The 4th of July holiday again ended with rioting in the Uptown Charlotte area on North Tryon Street between 7th and 9th Street. The problen was again caused by black youths who began fighting and caused utter mayhem. Police riot squads were called out to stop the violence and break up the unruly crowd. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police made over 20 arrests and one person was shot by an unidentified rioter.
After last years violence the radio station ( 1110 WBT ) that normally sponsors the fireworks show decided it would be safer to move the show out to Knights Stadium south of Charlotte. The Mayor was not happy that WBT made this decision because it reflected bad on Charlotte. Because as you probably know, nothing bad EVER happens in Charlotte. The Mayor decided that they would replace the long standing sponsor ( 1110 WBT ) with new sponsors ( the Taxpayers ) and have the fireworks show in Uptown Chatrlotte anyway dispite the danger and history of violence and putting the safety of many people including families with children at risk. Mayor McCrory should be putting the safety of the citizens way ahead of the "Image of Charlotte". Ignoring problems and pretending they don't exist doesn't make them go away.

Why Charlotte Voters don't Go To The Polls

The number of people voting and involved in politics in Charlotte-Mecklenburg is at an all time low. The reason being is the political process has been so corrupted and perverted people know their vote doesn't really count. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg its common place to use taxpayer money to pay for a referendum and then do the opposite thing the people voted for in that same referendum. A perfect example is the 300 million dollar Bobcat Arena. Charlotte residents voted resoundingly against building the arena and yet out local politicians ( Lynn Wheeler being the biggest cheerleader ) spent our money and built it anyway. Another more recent example is the School Bonds referendum. People voted resoundingly against giving more money to a school board that has squandered billions of taxpayer dollars and built one of the worst educational systems in America. Yet the County Commission is posed to give them an additional 171 million dollars dispute the overwhelming NO to more money at the polls. Why don't Charlotte voter go to the polls anymore ? It probably doesn't matter if they do. It doesn't look like the people of Charlotte are in charge anymore.

Solution ? Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money

Here we go again. The School Board Solutions Committee ( a.k.a. the deceptive rubber stamp committee ) recommend not to let the citizens vote on what they think the Charlotte-Mecklenburg needs and instead say the School Board and County Commission should agree to just give the School Board an additional 171 million dollars for school construction. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board is so out of touch with the voters that they can't put forth a construction package that voters would approve. The simple reason is the the voters have finally figured out the School Board has no clue what to do with one of most poorly rated educational systems in the country. Billions and billions of dollars have been thrown at this problem and still we fail to give our children an educational system that will help them succeed. Mecklenburg County has one of the highest drop-out rates among low-income children in the state and no plan is in place to change that. Children with disabilities also have few if any of the opportunities to suceed and tend to get shifted from place to place and warehoused and not taught. Our school system doesn't need more money, we need teachers that are willling to teach and School Board members that actually have kids in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System. Its time to stop throwing money at the problem and time to start throwing some common sense at it.

400 Million Dollar Debacle Underway

The first of 16 light rail cars have started arriving at the CATS maintenance facility off South Tryon Street. The total cost for the 16 cars alone will be over 50 million dollars. Charlotte residents overwhelmingly thought the light rail system would be a huge waste of taxpayer resources. The "McCrory Line" as local residents call it jokingly after the Republican Mayor that was its biggest proponent and cheerleader flies in the face of conservative spending. Atlanta citizens decry the day thier MARTA light rail system opened. After over 20 years it has yet to have a profitable year and is a huge drain on tax revenue that could be better spent on basic government services such as police and fire protection. Not only are the construction costs for a project like this astronomical, but the care, maintenance, and payroll for our system in Charlotte will haunt us for years and years to come. I look for another tax increase shorty after this beast starts operation.

Charlotte's Traffic Nightmare

A recent study stated that Charlotte, NC is one of the most congested cities in the United States. During the work week most people can expect at least a hour commute to get to work. How did this happen ? Its fairly simple.
Our local politicians have mismanaged our tax money collected to take care of the roads and funnelled that money into pet projects such as the 400 million dollar light rail system and the trolley that stretchs from the south end area of charlotte to the civic center. You would think that after the dismal failure financially and the extremely low ridership of our public transportation system that our politicians would use some common sense. But when you collect local state and federal taxes for roads and spend the taxes on something else over a long period of time the only thing you can expect is poorly maintained and underfunded road systems. A person with common sense would probably spend the majority of road money on roads since a majority of people (like 99%) use cars for transport and pay taxes expecting they will be maintained. There are no major improvements set for the central (inner loop) of Charlotte because our politicians care more interested in Charlotte being the perfect enviromentally friendly city than they are about the quality of life of its citizens.

Charlotte Violent Crime Hits Record Numbers

Charlotte violent crime has hit record numbers and here is the simple reason why. Our local government has chosen to spend our resources on their pet projects i.e. the bobcats arena, the charlotte trolley, the light rail system and various art projects instead of providing the basic neccessities that a community needs. It is no secret that these projects usually help fill the pockets of the freinds and relatives of the same politicians. Its a sad but well known fact that our local prosecutor rarely if ever convicts a murderer or other violent criminals. Most of the time the prosecutor pleads the crime down to a lesser charge. The reason is that there aren't enough resources left over for criminal justice. On the same note, CMPD detectives can't even work overtime to find and arrest murderers and violent criminals because the department is so underfunded. Some of our neighborhoods even lack basic fire protection.Its time to get our priorities straight.