From Staff Reports 

ENKA — An overview of the annual fiscal 2014-15 then-proposed spending plans — with no tax increases — for the City of Asheville and Buncombe County were presented by the respective localities’ officials to the Council of Independent Business Owners on June 6.

Each presentation, including brief question-and-answer periods, lasted about 20 minutes. Each of the budgets later in the month was approved and went into effect July 1. CIBO is billed as the area’s small-business chamber of commerce.

On a third matter, Buncombe Elections Director Trena Parker gave a 10-minute update on the status of the three write-in hopefuls seeking to be on the ballot in November’s elections. Two of the three attended the meeting and were permitted to give two-minute pitches.

Since it was the 70th anniversary of D-Day (the invasion of Europe by the Allies), CIBO leaders asked all military veterans in attendance to stand up. Those standing then received an ovation from the roughly 75 people who turned out for the breakfast meeting at A-B Tech’s Haynes Auditorium.

Special guests publicly recognized by CIBO included Asheville Mayor Esther  Manheimer, City Manager Gary Jackson, city Councilman Gordon Smith, county commissioners’ Chairman David Gantt, county commissioners David King and Joe Belcher, Woodfin Mayor Jerry VeHaun, and county school board members Paul J. “Dusty” Pless and  Lisa Baldwin.

Also recognized were two write-in hopefuls for local district attorney — retired district court judge Rebecca Knight and Ben Scales. Not present was Nancy Waldrop, a third write-in hopeful, who is seeking to be on the ballot to challenge Republican Miranda DeBruhl for a seat on the county Board of Commissioners. (Later in the month, both Scales and Waldrop turned in enough names on petitions to be included on the ballot for the respective jobs they are seeking.)

DeBruhl ran far to the right of incumbent David King for a victory in the primary and faces no opposition from the Democrats in November. Waldrop, King’s wife, has said she plans to offer a more centrist conservative position.

Speaking first, Manheimer, Asheville’s mayor, caused some to laugh and others to squirm (if not cringe), when she smiled as she looked out into the audience and quipped, “CIBO’s actually looking a little younger... Good work, CIBO. Not everyone here (looks as if they) actually experienced D-Day.”

Noting that Jackson, the city manager, was standing near her and could answer any technical questions, Manheimer said she was at the CIBO meeting to give an overview of the proposed city budget for fiscal 2014-15. A public hearing on the budget proposal was to be held June 10 with scheduled adoption of the spending plan on June 24.

The budget addresses such issues as taxes, the capital improvement program fund, employee compensation and more, Manheimer asserted. The plan finances $24.5 million in new construction and equipment purchases, the first big payment on a five-year plan that would result in more than $129 million in capital improvements.

“This is what we call a continuation budget,” she said. “It does not include a tax increase... Let me repeat ... it does not include a tax increase.”

The budget also includes a 3 percent pay raise for city employees.

Manheimer added, “Recently, the chamber did a survey of businesses — and the No. 1 issue was transportation for employees.”

The mayor noted, “We’re starting to see some recovery in the general fund balance.

Thus, she said transit improvements are a priority in the new budget, and that  “limited” Sunday served service “will be added in January 2014.”

She also said officials are working on “a re-engineering of (bus) Route C.”

Manheimer also noted the city is tackling a “graffiti initiative... the big cleanup is going to start soon.” She noted that the initiative was adopted in April — and it includes a 90-day graffiti removal initiative. “We set aside $300,000. It’s not clear we’ll need all that... but we’ve budgeted that.”

She added, “The privilege license tax will be in place this fiscal year. Next year, it’s gone” — at least “right now, legislatively.” For Asheville, the mayor said “it’s a $1.4 million hit, so it’s not insignificant. It is a tax in need of reform. Some businesses pay a lot, and some don’t... Needless to say cities are mad” at the loss of the revenue. 

She also mentioned the River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project, which will include multimodel transportation, which will cost $2.2 million.

“We get a lot of bang for your buck,” the mayor said. “We’ve got New Belgium (Brewery) moving in there (in the RAD). We’re looking at RAD Lofts coming in.... You get a really rate of return” on the city’s investments in the area.

In a brief question-and-answer period after the city’s budget presentation, a CIBO member said, “I noticed you had a drop in funding for 2015 — does that mean we have enough growth — or you’re just looking for areas to trim?”

Jackson, the city manager, replied, “It’s all economic development. .. It’s infrastructure... It’s somewhat arbitrary the way you group things. For over a five-year period, it’s $50 million alone for the (river) arts district.”

Manheimer added, “I can’t cheerlead enough for the RADTIP plan... That’s a multi-level effort.” 

Jackson asked, rhetorically, “What’s our return on investment? What are we getting for our money? We are going to be doing — on a quarterly basis — an economic impact analysis. We’ll be able to show you.... We want to show you” the excellent return on investment.

Restaurateur Dwight Butner told the city officials, “First, thanks for all you’re doing for the community.” Then, he asked, “What percentage of parking enterprise funds are being used for transit? Are you putting back reserves?”

“There’s some debt on Aloft parking deck,” Manheimer replied. “Otherwise, it’s used for transit. It’s common for cities to have to subsidize transit. It’s not a moneymaker....”

Jackson added, “The short answer is we don’t charge people very high parking rates.” Asheville’s parking rates are “some of the lowest in the state... Over time, as you pay off the debt” on parking garages. “We’re not putting money in the savings account, but we’re paying off the mortgage.”

Butner then asked, “Tell me the relationship between parking meter money” and parking deck payoff funds.

“It all goes into transit, except for some debt on Aloft (Hotel) — all our other parking decks are paid off, Manheimer said.

Speaking for the county, Gantt, the commissioners’ chairman, spoke mostly in general terms about the new spending plan, leaving the explanation of the details to County Budget Diane Price.

With much pride, Gantt noted that the county has “a triple-A bond rating” and “we’re not going to increase taxes.”

He added that “these things do not happen by happenstance.”

Gantt also lamented that of Buncombe’s projected $367 million budget, “98 percent of that is spoken for before we even get our hands on it.”

He also said the new budget is $1.4 million less than that of the current year. “But statistically that doesn’t mean anything because we don’t know what the General Assembly is going to do

“For instance, there’s going to be an increase in beginner teacher salary. That’s paid 90 percent by counties.... We don’t know what else they’re going to do. Right now, this budget doesn’t include a teacher (pay) increase,” Gantt said.

“We also don’t govern alone. As Mayor Manheimer, Mr. Jackson and CouncilmanSmith said.... ‘Our powers are pretty well controlled by the General Assembly.’

“So we were starting off in a not really good place.” However, Gantt asserted, the county is nonetheless able “to do it (devise a budget) because we stick to our guiding principles... We stick to our core services —  primarily funding school facilities.... We also realign our resources with our need.... Our principles are we do what we do best and partner with others (on everything else)

Gantt added, “We also have a long-term view of things... If someone’s playing chess, you don’t play checkers against them.”

He then reiterated, “We’re only one of 10 counties in the state with a Triple-A rating.” All of the others with the ranking “are much bigger. It’s because we handle money so well” that Buncombe is ranked in such elite company.

“In 21 years, we’ve never had to dip into our fund balance,” Gantt said. “Ninety percent of our funds go to core services, including education... I wish the General Assembly folks were here. We have a disaster in North Carolina — software bought by Democrats and implemented by Republicans.” He said the state paid $90 million on the software.

“We had to hire 15 new people (for the county) because of the state’s crappy computer system,” Gantt lamented. “The software we have is just a disaster — $35,000 had to be spent for emergency food. Across the state, it’s $15 million.”

After a pause, he smiled and triggered laughter from the audience when he quipped, “Remember, NC FAST bad, Buncombe County good.”

He then said Buncombe’s financies translate into an $88,000 mortagage on a $200,000 home.. We’re doing (building) five schools right now. We’re helping our friends at A-B Tech with their bond project.” 

Gantt ended his presentation by praising Commissioner Joe Belcher, who was present at the meeting, “for his efforts on the cultual and recreation commission.”

During a question-and-answer session that followed, CIBO member Mac Swicegood said, “It seems like to me we’ve had to increase” the budgeted amount – perhaps to the point of padding — for mandated services.

Price, the county budget director, replied, “It’s not padded. When the state requires us to cover mandated services,” that is what must be done.

Undeterred, Swicegood then asked about “overruns.”

“The expenditures we’re budgeting for FY ‘15 is just for this year and depends on what General Assembly is mandating,” Price answered.

On a separate matter, county Elections Director Trena Parker gave a brief report on the Board of Elections regarding “three petitions we’re working on at this point in time... for three candidates — write-ins.”

Parker noted that Ben Scales, who is seeking the Buncombe district attorney’s post, “has close to 6,000 sigs needs 7,349 — probably needs to get 8,000.”

She added, “They (the write-ins) have till June 12 to get their signatures into us. Then we have to verify them.

:By June 27 noon, the candidates are supposed to get their positions down to Raleigh.”

She added that Rebecca Knight “has about 500 signatures” in her drive to get on ballot for Buncombe district attorney.