Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1479538
4 UCW SEPTEMBER 21 - 27, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com MANAGING EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Lee assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com ART DIRECTOR Courtney Sapp-Scott art@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Isaiah Jones graphics@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITERS Alyson Hansen Ashley Shirley Kathleen Ramsey Jason Brady Chayenne Burns Laura Browne Katrina Wilson Jyl Barlow Deborah Murph Jacobs INTERN R. Elgin Zeiber CONTRIBUTING WRITERS John Hood and Michael Futch COVER Design by Courtney Sapp-Scott Photo by Isaiah Jones From left to right: Sutton Dreier, Gary Robinson, Brian Dreier MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200- FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Published weekly on Wednesdays, Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Army Airfield, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. Association of Community Publishers BILL BOWMAN, Publisher. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. In its wisdom (or lack of ) the Fayetteville City Council is about to launch a marketing campaign for three bond referendums totaling $97 million that will appear on the November ballot in less than 60 days. is is not much time for citizens to dig into the actual unintentional conse- quences and hardships this increased tax debt will impose on Fayetteville citizens. City Council members under the leadership of Mayor Mitch Colvin have proven to be oblivious to fiscal responsibility, impervious to allega- tions of "conflict of interest" and the appearance of profiting from spending Fayetteville citizens' tax dollars. is has become somewhat of a team sport for Mayor Colvin and Fayetteville-PWC Bond Counselor Attorney Jonathan Charleston. eir mantra seems to be: Sell, Sell, Sell! Sell PWC. Sell the Air- port. Sell citizens bogus (ShotSpotter) technology, and sell them on approv- ing bond referendums that will burden them financially for decades. Our unsophisticated and inexpe- rienced City Council is their mecha- nism for hatching and executing these schemes. ough Colvin and Charles- ton's assault on our pocketbooks may not be illegal or corrupt, it certainly borders on being unethical, inappropri- ate and reeks of conflict of interest. It saddens me that several responsible, intelligent, honest and ethical members of the Council remain silent about this situation and are reluctant to speak out for fear of being labeled racist and targeted by Cancel Culture. As for the $97M Bond Referendums — Fayetteville does not need this kind of tax burden, nor does it need what they promise the money will provide. Past councils have adequately provided services and infrastructure improve- ments without increasing the ad va- lorem tax rate on citizens. Need proof? $60 Million for Public Safety: Really? Previous city councils failed twice in saving taxpayers money and improving public safety when they failed to coop- erate with Cumberland County officials on a partnership agreement to build a Joint 911 Call Center. Why? Ignorance, laziness, greed and it didn't fit into their political agendas. Under previous Councils with com- petent leadership, Fayetteville built four new fire stations and financed a fifth station without raising taxes or floating general obligation bonds. No one argues the need for additional fire stations and upgrades to outdated and non-ADA- compliant fire stations. However, other options include putting proposed fire stations up as collateral while the city continues to cash-fund-as-they-go and receive a decent finance rate based on market trends. ese options should not require a bond referendum to raise our property taxes for decades. Mayor Colvin, Charleston and council members have convenient- ly ignored these options or have failed to research them. Again, this demonstrates they are irresponsible stewards of taxpayers' money. Here's more proof: $12 Million Housing Bond: Vote No! is is Socialism at its worst. Ad valor- em taxpayer money should not be used to help others get housing. Socialism is when you tax everyone's personal prop- erty and then redistribute that money to a small and select group of people from which others cannot benefit. Sound familiar? Our City Council and staff want to spend 12 million dollars on home-ownership programs and Fay- etteville's critical housing needs when neither can define, qualify or quantify the need. is clearly illustrates the definition of insanity and stupidity. $25 Million Public Infrastructure: Vote No! Here is another example of poor leadership. Mayor Colvin and council members are asking residents to vote blindly on significant financial obligations before they have any insight or knowledge about how the money will be spent. And, who will be making the decisions? Fayetteville residents must be cautious. If this referendum is allowed to pass, it will tax city residents for 20 years and have money flowing into the city's coffers before any final list of the prioritized projects are deter- mined. Currently, the city only funds side- walks along major NCDOT through- ways. It receives matching funds for a portion of the NCDOT-approved road improvement plan. At best, we should be aware of planned projects before we ask citizens to vote to increase their taxes. And, what about stormwater? ere has been no mention of this sig- nificant city need. e City Council and staff will have less than two months to educate the Fayetteville electorate on the projects they plan to pursue with the proposed $12 and $25 million. We have not seen any referendum details to date, so we suggest you vote against ALL the purposed bond referendums on the November ballot. Previous councils financed and built the Keith Bates swimming pool at College Lakes Recreation Center, the Westover Recreation swimming pool, and the Lake Rim Park swimming pool. All without a tax increase or floating bond referenda to increase everyone's real property taxes across Fayetteville. e devil is in the details. During City Council's Aug. 8 meeting, it was disclosed that borrowing $97 million at 4.5% interest would add almost another $46 million to the total price tag, for an all-in cost of about $143 million over 20 years. Since then, the interest rate has increased and is projected to grow more before Fayetteville can borrow the money. at means the tax increase and borrowing cost to Fayetteville prop- erty owners will rise above what the City Council and staff say. e way I see it, the City of Fayetteville has a double-barreled op- portunity to get the community on the right track, and both come Nov. 8. Vote No! on the $97 million referen- dum and Vote Yes! for the Vote for 6 referendum. is will restructure the voting districts and provide ALL citi- zens a much larger voice in choosing its leadership. Under this voting program, every voter gets six choices rather than the two we receive now. ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. PUBLISHER'S PEN Vote No! $97 million tax referendum places cruel tax on Fayetteville residents by BILL BOWMAN