Mecklenburg County Looking at Over $81 Million in Budget Cuts

The much anticipated Mecklenburg County Budget Proposal was unveiled last night by County Manager Harry Jones with $81.1 Million in cuts.

The new proposal includes $21.7 Million in Charlotte Mecklenburg School cuts.  In a  school district that already feels the ache of over crowding and under anticipated growth, these cuts are going to knock the school system for a loop!  Over 350 teachers and administrators have already received pink slips, but it is believed that up to $1,000 will lose their jobs before they are finished with the cuts.

Think about that for a moment – over $1,000 teachers and administrators will be gone!  That is huge to say the least.  Our schools are already suffering with over-crowded classrooms and less than adequate learning spaces with over 1/4 of all classes being held in trailers or mobile classrooms.  I don’t quite understand why the school system is taking the brunt of this cut.

Getting rid of the over abundance of administrators is perfectly fine with me, as well as cutting the salaries of the “upper crust” of the school system and other County office.  But the decision to cut so many teachers is just beyond my thinking.  Our children are in desperate need of good teachers and classrooms conducive to learning.  We complain about kids being out of control and ruling the schools – yet we make major cuts where we actually need more money.

I don’t have the answers, but I do know what I haven’t seen – Harry Jones or Peter Gorman taking a pay cut.  Why are the highest paid NOT taking a cut?

Take a few minutes and check out the Mecklenburg County Salary Database. Harry Jones, the County Manager makes over $215,000 a year PLUS over $38,000 in bonuses. This amount is being paid for a County that is out of control and mis-managed.  How about he take a pay cut?

Even more interesting, Peter Gorman’s Salary is NOT listed in the database. Why?  Its easy to find his salary online, but why not list it in the database?  FYI – His base salary is over $260,000 PLUS bonuses, retirement, etc of over $56,000 – uh, pay cut please?

Let me know what you think about all these cuts.  I would love to hear what you have to say.

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