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Tough times leave council facing some hard decisions
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Published: November 20, 2008
You know that the economy is as bad as billed when elected officials decide to hold a meeting to ask residents what they think.
The city of Winston-Salem did just that Tuesday night, holding a citywide economic forum at Joel Coliseum.
Ostensibly, it was going to be a chance for ordinary taxpayers and involved citizens to have their voices heard by those elected to serve them.
Members of the Winston-Salem City Council attended, as did an assortment of city employees, including Denise Bell, the city's chief finance officer. A crowd estimated at 100 people filed into the Winston-Salem Room at the coliseum.
It was to be a fine example of the very best in representative, grass-roots democracy.
Except it didn't turn out quite that way. Most of the speakers who signed up for time at the podium represented special-interest groups -- local lobbyists.
"I kept notes of who got up to speak and out of the 22, I believe 17 or 18 were involved with the city and … were up there to make sure that council didn't cut their funding," said Gerald Wood, a resident who is just nutty enough to pay attention to the city's budget himself.
Looking after the pie
In no particular order, the groups represented at the forum included the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.
Oddly enough, each of those groups represents people (and organizations) with a vested interest in city money.
The chamber, for example, is unapologetic in its representation of business interests and most assuredly surely supports continued economic development in the form of tax breaks and outright incentives to companies that might create new jobs.
The arts council signed a contract with the city in September for a $200,000 grant to supplement its budget, estimated at a little more than $3.6 million for 2008-09.
"I know we're looking to tighten our belts," said Mark Boynton, a supporter of the arts council. "But please let us not do it at the expense of the arts."
Then there were speakers such as Wood (an anti-spending hawk and self-proclaimed pain in the city's backside) and Nan Griswold, the recently retired executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, who pleaded for city officials to remember that 24,000 children in the area qualify for free or reduced lunches at school.
"Nan Griswold, what she was asking is reasonable and was different from the others," Wood said yesterday. "Other than her, everybody else was there to make sure their piece of the pie stayed the same."
Just like home?
In a candid moment, most (if not all) members of the city council likely would admit that being an elected official in lean times isn't what they bargained for when they decided to run.
Because the truth of the matter is that nobody wants to be Scrooge, make hard choices or be forced to say no to anybody's request.
Who's against bringing new jobs to the city? And arts supporters are quite correct when they talk about the intangibles that a vibrant arts scene brings to the city. A $200,000 grant is pocket change in a $396.5 million city budget.
But if government revenue really is slowing to a trickle -- the state just asked local school boards to return money to help with a projected $2 billion shortfall -- local elected officials are almost certainly going to have to do something soon.
Here's an idea favored by Wood and many others who didn't have an interest group speaking on their behalf -- treat the city budget like the one at home.
If money's tight, you don't go buy a new car, and you quit dining out and going to the movies.
Surely, city financial types can find ways to save in the $84 million in capital-expenses budgeted for 2008-09 or trims in the $27.4 million leisure-services budget.
"I drive a used car and use coupons, so why shouldn't the city?" Wood asked. "The job of the city should be to make money go farther, not look for more to spend."
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.
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