In this "New Depression" what is your town doing to lower costs? (Newark: sales, insurance)

[TheEmissary]

Hi Everybody! - From an ex-New Jerseyan now living outside of Charlotte, I'm wondering what your town or city is doing to save money during these tough economic times. I'll tell you what's going on here and you can enlighten me to what I've missed (fiscally speaking) since I've moved three years ago.

The city of Charlotte which prides itself for being the second largest banking center in the US is going through some rough patches. The unemployment rate is up to 8.9% for the city and sales tax revenues are down. So the city has decided to cut back on what it can. 120 teachers are being laid off for the coming school year. There are no teacher unions and no tenure so this is a relatively easy thing to do. There will be bigger class sizes as a result. Water bills are being increased but a tax re-assessment of the entire city has been put off for a year. Any thought of raising property taxes either city or county is "unthinkable" so layoffs in municipal services are likely to be a given. The only exception has been the police department which will be hiring. The crime rate in Charlotte according to the FBI stats is in-between Newark's and Paterson's so that may explain that anomaly. Some parts have very high crime rates and other parts have practically none. A new Ikea store is opening on Wednesday and people are already camping out by the store to get a free "Poang" chair.

In my county, Union they are laying off some folks in the Sheriff's department and they're not going to build a couple of schools they were planning to because the rate of growth has slowed to a crawl. Tahiti - that "mass-migration" out of the Garden and Empire states has evaporated!
So, what is your town or city doing? Are they laying off anyone or cutting spending? Have they stopped the tax increases? What gives?

BTW - If you would like to calculate what you would pay in property taxes in Charlotte here is a simple formula. Divide the current value of your house by three and then by 100. Multiply that amount by $1.35. That will give you the approximate tax you would pay here. How does that compare to what you pay?

[desertsun41]

Towns/cities/govt dont cut back. They spend more. That's the nature of govt. It's easy to spend other people's money. What they are doing here is instructing the oink oinks to give out more tickets. They figure it's easier to extort money from the peons then to raise taxes on them. It does get the least resistance because it is mostly out of the publics eye.

[tahiti]

I'm not sure in my town, I'd need to read more closely about what's in the budget. I'm not sure laying teachers off is the right thing, I'm sure there's fat somewhere else without having to increase class sizes.

Anyway, about the mass migration - one of my BFF's moved down there (South Charlotte) so the migration or lack of doesn't mean much to me!

And also about the taxes - something doesn't sound right. Her taxes are about twice what mine would be doing that formula - and the value of my home is twice as large as hers.

In other words - if my home were worth $100K, using your formula, my taxes would be $450/yr. I'm saying her taxes are $900/yr on a home valued at $50K.

[sligogirl]

My municipality sold, the leaf vacuum truck, large dump truck, and possibly, the only street sweeper.
Council, attempting to coordinate shared services with other municipalities to share pick up of leaves, garbage, recyclables, & snow plowing.
A proposal of, garbage pick up once weekly in colder months, grass pick-up, once monthly, and a possible, bi-annual bulk-waste pick-up.
I am aware that many may not have these services but, believe me, we are paying a premium for the above.

Most municipal employes will now pay more into their pensions, insurance, but, no one has been furloughed.

Best~

Sligogirl

[tahiti]

Oh wait, after reading sligogirl's comments there is something my town did - they consolidated court services and police force and 911 with a neighboring town. Califon now pays us for our police service, 911 and courts. Very smart thing, IMHO.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by tahiti

Oh wait, after reading sligogirl's comments there is something my town did - they consolidated court services and police force and 911 with a neighboring town. Califon now pays us for our police service, 911 and courts. Very smart thing, IMHO.

Very smart indeed- and something that needs to happen on a huge scale in NJ. There's no reason for every little town to have it's own court that's only used once a week (or once a month)- merge 5 towns together into one court system, and let one take Mondays, one Tuesdays, etc. The same principle can apply to many municipal services.

[Jerseyt719]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Very smart indeed- and something that needs to happen on a huge scale in NJ. There's no reason for every little town to have it's own court that's only used once a week (or once a month)- merge 5 towns together into one court system, and let one take Mondays, one Tuesdays, etc. The same principle can apply to many municipal services.

Yes, and there's also no reason every little town has to have their own Board of Ed with a Superintendant and all. That's an easy consolidation that could be made.

I agree with consolidating services wholeheartedly. It can add up to big savings.

[Bideshi]

Laying off city employees.

[banger]

I live in Woodbridge, they don't have a budget crisis.

When they run out of money, they transfer the debt......... to ME !!!!!, in the form of even higher taxes.

Therefor, they have no short fall.

Myself on the other hand am about a hares breath from collapsing.

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by tahiti

Oh wait, after reading sligogirl's comments there is something my town did - they consolidated court services and police force and 911 with a neighboring town. Califon now pays us for our police service, 911 and courts. Very smart thing, IMHO.

Wasn't that already done - pre-recession?
If it was up to me... I'd eliminate all township functions and hand everything over the the "county"... They seem to get the bulk of our property taxes anyway