Davidson CIP answers coming in...decision should be delayed until data is complete.

Here are some answers to yesterday's questions.  Thanks to the Town Staff for responding quickly.  The below is compiled from direct answers from the Town as well as other bits of information available. 

Questions for Tonight's Commissioners Chat

The below email was sent to the Town for tonight's chat.  This may be the only time there is a public forum for people to speak on the proposed millions in CIP spending.  Hopefully, the public will be provided this information before any votes occur...



From: Rick Short <rick_clt@yahoo.com>
To: "townboard@townofdavidson.org" <townboard@townofdavidson.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 6:51 AM
Subject: Questions for tonight's chat...

Members of the Board and Staff,

 

Do you think answers will be available to the below at tonight's chat? In light of the good news from MiC I'm hopeful some of these can now be answered before you decide to go forward. In my opinion, these are questions the Board should answer for the public before voting on the CIP. Without answers to these it is very difficult for citizens to have the necessary parameters to judge the impact of the CIP decision.

 

1. How much debt is Davidson willing to owe Mooresville as part of this spending plan? What is the expected debt for the current fiscal year and is this based on the new 30% ownership level?

 

2. What are the growth projections and timelines provided and supported by Mi-Connection management which will result in lower annual subsidies from Davidson? Based on the MiC presentation last week, these should be available.

 

3. Based on the combined proposed spending and the debt payoff to Mooresville, when can Davidson citizens possibly expect to see any lowering of tax rates and/or fees which have been kept artificially high due to the years of Mi-Connection subsidies? If the answer is “never” or “we don’t know”, that’s fine. However, the public has expected all along that some relief would be coming when the subsidies were lowered.

 

4. What is the total cost of the proposed new personnel extrapolated out for the life of this spending plan? Specifically, I’m interested in the plans to move from a level C to level B service for Public Works and the costs to operate the proposed new fire station.

 

5. If the Red Line goes forward, will the Board commit to requiring the Red Line pay for whatever costs are not covered by the federal grant for the proposed Beaty St corridor project within the CIP? If not, why not? The Red Line project plans published to date indicate roughly $1.3 million for this same corridor. Not requiring this payment as a precondition for Town approval of the Red Line will effectively be leaving a portion of this money on the table.

 

I've asked some of these questions over the past few weeks, but the answers were not certain. I'm hoping they can be made public before you vote.

 

Thanks,

 

Rick Short

 

Follow on Twitter @Rick_Clt

Friend on Facebook "Rick Short"

Blog: ashortchronicle.blogspot.com

Canary in the coal mine in NC-9?

During the Republican Primary for NC-9, hardly a week went by without getting a mailer from the Pittenger Campaign - most of them negative.  Saturday, saw the arrival of the first Pittenger mailer in my mailbox for the General Election.  After spending more of his own money than all but one other candidate in the country I was surprised that it took that long.  Unfortunately, I wasn't surprised that it was another negative add.  While not the offensive "negative" of the primary, this was more the expected "negative" of partisan differentiation.  The piece was about Jennifer Roberts supporting higher energy taxes.

That type of partisan differentiation would seem to make more of a difference if you are concerned about the seat going Democratic and handing the gavel back to Nancy Pelosi, but few are worried about that anymore.  See  "House elections spell a Republican story and victory". That kind of red meat tax issue is the kind of thing you use to get people to vote against someone.  But in a district where you have such a registration advantage, there should be no need to really press that issue.  All you need for victory is for your people to vote for you.

I've got to wonder, why wait until now and why go negative again?  There should be no real contest in this race - right?  At this late date, does the Pittenger Campaign really sense they need to give their people a reason to pull the lever for them?

After a week of early voting, is this mailer a canary in the coal mine for NC-9?

Update: The last paragraph of this story points out a similar dynamic in the Presidential race.  The Two Polls That Have Chicago Terrified - NationalReviewOnline

Early Voting Mid-Point...Who's winning NC?

The "Under the Dome" blog at the Raleigh News and Observer posted the following piece, Democrats lead early voting; Republicans think they're winning the race, which seems to say Democrats are on pace to repeat their early voting success from 2008 which put the state in President Obama's column.  During that election the Obama campaign enjoyed a 300k lead after early voting on their way to a razor thin final margin of just 14k.

This appears to be an oversimplification of what's going on so far.

Read more here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/democrats_lead_early_voting_but_are_republicans_winning_the_race#storylink=cpy

3 Questions for Davidson's CIP Discussion

Posted as a comment over at DavidsonNews.net Board resumes discussion of capital projects Tuesday.

In my opinion, there are three questions the Board should answer for the public before continuing with the CIP discussions. Without answers to these it is very difficult for citizens to have the necessary parameters to judge if these discussions are even starting from a sound footing.

1. How much debt is Davidson willing to owe Mooresville as part of this spending plan? Any spending at this point will effectively be on the Mooresville credit card. That being the case, only absolutely critical items should be considered.

2. What are the growth projections and timelines provided and supported by Mi-Connection management which will result in lower annual subsidies from Davidson? Only when these annual subsidies fall below $1 million will Davidson begin to pay down our accumulated debt to Mooresville.

3. Based on the combined proposed spending and the debt payoff to Mooresville, when can Davidson citizens possibly expect to see any lowering of tax rates and/or fees which have been kept artificially high due to the years of Mi-Connection subsidies? If the answer is “never” or “we don’t know”, that’s fine. However, the public has expected all along that some relief would be coming when the subsidies were lowered.

Having attended several of these meetings, I have yet to hear these items publicly discussed. Admittedly, I may have missed it, but if these critical items have been made public it would be useful information for the Town to publish at this point.

More to come after tomorrow's meeting...

Backdoor Spending for Red Line in the Near Future?

With the Red Line in limbo, a couple of proposed spending items in the near future could give the project a little wiggle room on the spending side if Davidson and Huntersville planners get their way.  As part of the Red Line plans on the table, the towns were supposed to get local improvements paid for by the rail project if it goes forward.  However, it looks like both Davidson and Huntersville will pick up the tab themselves for their most expensive Red Line related items if the Huntersville transportation bond passes in November and Davidson moves forward on one of the items being discussed as part of a new Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

The entire list of station area improvements found at the Red Line site lists $6.9 million for a " Huntersville Main Street upgrade" and $1.38 million for a "Potts-Sloan Connection" in Davidson.  The Huntersville Herald reported back in August that $10.275 million of the Huntersville transportation bond currently on the ballot would go to "N.C. 115/Main Street upgrades" - by far the biggest chunk of money spent from this $17.85 million portion of the bond offerings.  On the Davidson side, the Town's current CIP proposal has its largest item the Potts-Beaty corridor project which contains the the "Potts-Sloan Connection" mentioned as part of the Red Line effort.

Both of these projects would receive Federal funds if underway by 2015 according to the towns, and the argument goes that they would be leaving money on the table if they don't get started.  However, it sure looks like they will be leaving Red Line money on the table if they go ahead.  In Huntersville's case there has at least been an acknowledgement that this spending will increase taxes.  No such acknowledgement has come from Davidson at this point.

One thing seems for sure, if the towns spend their own money on these projects (subsidized by the Feds), the Red Line project would not have to if it goes forward.

With Strong Move to Romney North Carolina's Moment in the Spotlight Ends

On 10/18 North Carolina moved to the "leans Romney" category in the RealClearPolitics.com Electoral College projections effectively bringing to an end the Tarheel State's moment in the national political spotlight.   Its original "Firewall in Ruins", national attention will move elsewhere as the Obama Campaign redraws its lines of defense around more traditional Democratic Party strongholds including the union heavy states of Ohio and Nevada.  Punctuating these events, the Romney Campaign is now reportedly pulling senior campaign workers out of NC to carry the battle for the Presidency to states needing more support.

It's a rather ignominious end to a political season which started with such high hopes - one where Charlotte hosted the DNC enjoying some global attention only to have the host committee end up millions in debt and the State's ultimate impact on the election relegated to being a footnote of election history - it being the state that put the Romney-Ryan ticket into the lead in the RCP Electoral College projections for the first time.

Of course, that factoid will only be important if there is ultimately a Republican win.  Less than three weeks until we all find out.

Davidson Village...Last Bastion for Democrats in the LKN Area

I came across the below post a while ago on WFAE.org and asked Dr Bitzer to repost on his blog NC-Politics. In light of last night's rather raucous Presidential debate, I thought it was a pertinent topic for the eve of early voting in this year's State and Federal elections and food for thought on local elections to come.  Regardless of what election cycle we're navigating, this is a good depiction of why there is the saying "all politics is local".

Sorting Our Polarized Politics - Dr Michael Bitzer

Looking at the map of Mecklenburg county in the above link, one thing that jumped out at me was how Davidson's Precinct 206 sits like a spot of Carolina Blue in a sea of NC State Red at the county's northern edge.  (I could have used Duke Blue Devil blue, but according to Dr Bitzer's analysis, the Davidson Village isn't even that blue anymore.)  It is especially interesting considering Davidson's other town precinct, PCT 127, is just as red as all the other precincts in the area.

Davidson CIP: Shell Game or Just a Lack of Caution?

UPDATE 10/26: The latest Mi-Connection results posted at DavidsonNews.net look promising and could reduce considerably the Davison subsidy payments outlined below if the trend continues. However, the significant improvement was primarily driven by operational savings from bringing the daily operations under local contol. This is a one-time event, and going forward continued improvement will have to be driven by customer growth.

Over the past couple of months, the Davidson Town Board and Staff have been discussing a new Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the town. The CIP will also be the main topic of conversation at the Board's upcoming "retreat" in Statesville. Since the renegotiation of the Mi-Connection interlocal agreement with Mooresville earlier this spring, Davidson's cash flow problems have eased considerably. After years of postponed spending due to the large Mi-Connection subsidies, the Town appears ready to open the spending spigot - at least a little - for now.

However, achieving better cash flow is not the same as finding new money, and opening the spigot a little can quickly become like drinking from a fire hose.

Here are some numbers everyone should keep an eye on...