Government

I would label last night’s meeting generally successful, but reflecting back on what I observed and participated in. Before I get into my reactions, a quick few notes on what actually happened. The meeting took place entirely in small groups. As noted above, I participated in the transportation group. The official title of the theme is:

Getting Around: Transportation: (transportation of all forms, regional assets, partnerships, potential for shared success)

All of the groups basically followed the same format, kicking off with an introduction by the group go-chairs and then moving into the meat of the discussion, which was supposed to touch on four different questions, all with a tilt toward the particular theme’s interest area.

One of the recent threads raised the issue of the unsustainable increases in taxes that Chapel Hill citizens are faced with.  I'd be interested in knowing what services/benefits citizens (this includes Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange County) would be willing do do without in order to minimize tax increases or to even decrease taxes.  Would you be willing to have trash picked up every two weeks instead of weekly?  Would you be willing to have recycling every other week as well?  What about schools?  Would you be willing to have larger class sizes and/or fewer teachers?  How about fire/police protection?  Would you be willing to have fewer police and fire persons or to have fewer stations and longer response times?

Anyone who watched the Chapel Hill budget process last year knows that the Town Manager and his staff worked hard to cut the budget to the bone, in many cases leaving staff positions unfilled to make the Council-requested percentage cuts.  Although I don't believe public safety was jepoardized by these cuts it is hard (for me, at least) to see where any future cuts might come from.