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The Boone-Carrboro look

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Staff

By Philip Duchastel

I would like to congratulate Brian Voyce for comparing the financial governance of Boone and Carrboro in his recent “Tale of Two Cities” article [Carrboro Citizen, June 19]. We need more of this sort of comparison as we try to improve our town finances in order to keep the Carrboro spirit alive and well.

We must be careful though in remaining realistic in our expectations. Some “if”s” simply do not apply, as in “if Carrboro had sales tax revenues like Boone …” Well, Carrboro never will, since it is basically a bedroom community and Boone is a tourist town on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Likewise, no use grumbling about our public transportation costs, since we choose to subsidize free buses and that is a good part of who we are.

But why should Carrboro “excel in spending, outspending Boone by 33 percent per capita”? What can be done about that? Here are some thoughts. First is action on the part of our town officials, then some action on the part of the press.
We need to tune our governance philosophy, with an eye to trimming spending by reducing local government (including OWASA’s seemingly shameful spending). Our mayor and aldermen need to realize that our current slow growth is not about to be turned around in the near future. The country is just entering a tightened economy and we need to adjust to it rather than dream of better days.

OK, so where do we trim? I will not list specifics here, but rather discuss process. First, our officials and town management need to engage in more of these town comparables. Ideas will flow from looking at what similar towns are doing, in the same vein that Voyce does in his Boone-Carrboro comparison.

Our officials need to also energize the town’s Economic Sustainability Commission. Do you realize that Carrboro does not even have an economic development plan? See http://carrboroedp.wikispaces.com for a commentary on that!

And our town officials need to treat the town budget as a long-range dynamic plan, not as a ready-made once-a-year ad-hoc proposition to vote on. That budget needs some serious scanning to discover where the fat might lie in these trim-conscious times.

And now for you, the press. Some serious vigilance is needed regarding these matters, more than what is being done. The data Voyce presents is just the kind of information citizens need in order to assess what our town is up to and where laxity might prevail. You can bet we will be getting a scorecard on these matters from him come next town election.

But The Carrboro Citizen can itself engage in more political scanning of this sort. If it takes its town role seriously, then it could focus its political editorial eye more on the town rather than on the state.

Let’s hope we get more good reviews like Brian Voyce’s. His may not be perfect, but what a great start!

Philip Duchastel is a resident of Carrboro.

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