Has Davidson finally gotten itself a fiscally conservative Board?

This is a question aShortChronicle has wanted to ask for a while now, years in fact.  However, it was really a rhetorical question, a moot point.  The answer would have always been "no".

Clearly, the Board that chose to buy Mi-Connection in 2007 wasn't fiscally conservative.  Willingly gambling the town's future by entering one of the most technologically fast paced and cutthroat businesses could only be described as fiscally reckless.  Making matters worse, there was never any real apology from those who committed that most harmful fiscal decision in the town's history.  No, that Board couldn't be called fiscally responsible, much less fiscally conservative

The Boards since Mi-Connection did make progress on some things.  They had to.  The financially disastrous decision to enter the cable business gave them no choice, but there were always costs.

Yes, Davidson's Board in 2012 agreed to a new inter local agreement with Mooresville that capped the Town's out of pocket annual expense for Mi-Connection at $1 million.  That was a good thing.  However, that agreement also fixed Davidson's ownership percentage of Mi-Connection at 30%, taking away the town's only real negotiating leverage with its Mooresville business partner.  That's not a good thing.  Under the current agreement, Davidson can no longer potentially dump its customer base and leave Mooresville holding all or most of the debt.  While the 2012 agreement kept Davidson from immediately going over the financial cliff, it also kept the town tethered to the company so if Mi-Connection (now Continuum) goes down in the future, Davidson goes with it.

Yes, the previous Board that left office last December got the town's 2nd fire station underway, something that has long been sorely needed.  However, they also laid the groundwork for massive tax increases by pushing a bond package for "nice to have" items while simultaneously pushing plans for a new Town Hall and public safety facilities without going to voters.  Putting all of these projects before voters might have resulted in some of the "nice to haves" not passing.  To aShortChronicle the tactic of putting some but not all of this proposed spending before the voters was a clear manipulation of the situation designed to get all if the spending underway and thus eventually burden taxpayers with as much as a 25% tax increase.

The long wait for some version of fiscal conservatism at Davidson Town Hall may be over though.

After listening to Davidson's newly elected Board at the 2/13 meeting last week and at The Egg on Monday, it seems clear there may be a new view on spending taxpayer money at Davidson Town Hall. Comments from Commissioners Sitton and Campbell in particular should give taxpayers heart.

At the 2/13 Board meeting when describing why towns spend massively on projects like the proposed new Town Hall building, Sitton explained why saying "we have a guaranteed Revenue Source in perpetuity and that's you. I'm not sure that's a good reason."  At the same meeting, Campbell described the trifecta of Mi-Connection, the proposed public facilities debt, and spending the approved GO Bonds by saying "I am concerned with the potential perfect financial storm that brews with this."  After this discussion, the Board put this project on "pause" while it looks a at more creative solutions that don't bust the budget.

At The Egg "Chat" meeting with electeds this past Monday, there was a lot of discussion about fiscal issues as well.  While the overall fiscal situation may make dramatic improvements in taxes unlikely, the electeds didn't discount citizen concerns either.  That in and of itself is a step in the right direction compared to how fiscal concerns were often treated in the past.

There is a lot of ground to cover before one can really answer the question posed here about the new Board's true fiscal view of things, including putting together its first budget in the next few months.  However, if the early indications and rhetoric are any clue, things look more promising than they have in years.  It seems safe to say, taxpayers likely won'tbe footing the bill for anything like this in the near future.