Asheville’s financial forecast: Bleak

Jason Sandford January 9, 2010

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Asheville City Council 2010 Photo by Jason Sandford

Asheville is facing a bleak economic forecast, according to the city’s top managers, who delivered a report to Asheville City Council this weekend.

In the most simple terms, the recession has devastated the main sources of revenue – sales taxes and property taxes – the city relies upon to pay for its services. Meantime, City Council has committed to millions of dollars in improvements that residents say they want. And beneath it all, our city’s core infrastructure is rotting away.

It’s an unsustainable picture. The city must either find new sources of revenue, or cut the size of local government, or come up with an equitable mix of the two strategies.

Bleak.

Mountain Xpress has posted a preliminary story here and the city report here.

City Councilman Gordon Smith offers a few thoughts here.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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5 Comments

Asheville Dweller January 10, 2010

its out of control spending and the lack of decent paying jobs, the city council for years has had its head in the clouds and its getting worse. They need to get back to bare bones spending and less frills, stop wasting money on things we dont need at the moment.

Tourists are broke and now that more jobs are gone where are those tourists going to come from? And why would they want to come to see a bunch of Bars downtown and shoddy artwork on the river?

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Been There January 10, 2010

This train has been coming down the tracks for a long, long time.

The Chamber keeps banging the drum of Tourism. Over and over. Whereas they should be bringing in manufacturing and production, they bring in nothing but tourists who only drop so much money, for a short period of time, in Asheville.

"People from other places" move in, and after selling their house for silly money during the Bush years (which was Fairy Tale Theater as far as finance is concerned) and bought trophy homes in the area. Now, during the economic correction taking place (overdue, and NOT related to the current administration who is left to clean up) "People from other places" can’t sell their house. So, silly priced homes (that got big tax bills) don’t sell, and sit.

In my line of work, I have met people who are moving home to whence they came as they can’t sell their house in wherever.

That does not bode well for Asheville taxes, no?

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PennyPincher January 10, 2010

Meanwhile, tax money goes to send politicians to Hawaii:
http://www.randomasheville.blogspot.com/2010/01/mark-barrett-doesnt-get-to-go-to-hawaii.html

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ThePhan January 9, 2010

It continues to disappoint me that the one obvious (albeit difficult) solution is city/county government consolidation, yet no one ever wants to talk about it.

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obiwan January 9, 2010

And how much did the Asheville Airport board spend on their little junket to the islands?

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