What an itch...
With the help of Emily Killian's graphics know-how, I'm putting together a package about poison oak and ivy. I've never been terribly allergic to it, but when a quick poll around the newsroom revealed that most of my college-educated, knowledgeable colleagues didn't even know what the two plants looked like, I thought it might be a good idea to give everyone a refresher course.

Robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul...
A Medicaid relief proposal is floating around the General Assembly. SB 1484 proposes to take all sales tax revenues from incorporated municipalities across the state -- Shelby, Boiling Springs, Forest City, etc. around here -- and give that money to the counties the cities and towns are in.
In the League of Municipalities Legislative Bulletin (read in full here) has the following to say about SB 1484:

Senate Majority Leader and SB 1484 sponsor Tony Rand was quoted in the Fayetteville Observer as indicating that municipalities could withstand the freeze on a significant portion of their sales tax revenues. He was quoted as follows: “Counties have to build schools, so we’re just not costing the cities anything. We’re keeping the cities where they are, but they don’t have to build jails and schools.”

We certainly support Medicaid relief as a part of an infrastructure funding package that will benefit counties, but cities must not be left by the wayside. Cities and towns also provide vital services to growing populations and have tremendous funding needs for building and maintaining municipal streets (and sometimes state system roads), water and sewer systems, storm water systems, and other infrastructure. They also provide police and fire protection for a large portion of the populace in the state.

What does our senator, Walter Dalton, and area elected officials have to say about this plan?

That's it for now...

Labels: budget, county, government, news, spending