ASHEVILLE — Following Mayor Esther Manheimer’s presentation on the proposed Asheville city budget for the next fiscal year that would include a property tax increase, a question-and-answer session opened with a barrage  of qiestions at the May 2 meeting of the Asheville-based Council of Business Owners at UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center.

Assisting the mayor in fielding the questions were Vice Mayor Antanette Mosely and City Councilwoman Maggie Ullman.

An unidentified man opened the Q&A with a comment on the proposed property tax increase that would amount to $9.36 to $9.54 per month more as follows:

“As a businessperson — paying $9 a month... That’s the price of a meal at McDonald’s,” asserting that it was an insignificant amount to an average individual.”

Smiling, Manheimer prompted laughter from the CIBO attendees when she quipped, “Thanks... So I guess were done here today!”

However, another unidentifed man, noting that he is a landlord, lamented that “it’s hard to get insurance coverage” in Asheville, given the crime problems the city is experiencing. “One of my properties is on Elizabeth Street” in the mostly affluent Montford neighborhood, ‘but insurers are reluctant to cover his property “because (they say) it’s in a high-crime area.” As a result, he said, “We will have to increase monthly rents by $300 or more” per month in that area.

The man also said, “We’re on a track to do away with affordable housing in Asheville.”

In response, the mayor said she appreciated the landlord telliing him of his problem on getting insurance, noting that “I haven’t heard” any such complaints before. She added, “With our (city) manager and (police) chief... they’ve got a great working relationship. So they will look into that.”

As for affordable housing, Manheimer said, “Get ready! We’re going to have to build housing. She noted that the city has received much government money to build affordable housing, “so we (the City of Asheville) has six to seven years to spend all of this money in this community.”

Another man said, “My question is about resiliency of the city. They talk about a 500-year flood.,” but supposedly rare severe weather outbreaks are becoming commonplace in the Asheville area,, so he wondered if the city should increase its fund balance from 15 percent.

Mosely, the vice mayor, replied, “So the lessons we’ve learned here is that we hope at least to maintain our 15 percent balance and, hopefully, increase it.”

Ullman, the councilwoman, added, “Despite all of that, we’re seeing downtown crime going down” — not up, as an earlier questioner asserted.

At that point, the city officials asked city Police Chief Mike Lamb, who was in attendance, to comment on the current law enforcement situation in Asheville

In response, Lamb addressed the long-standing critical staff shortage at the Asheville Police Department, noting, “We’re still 63 (officers) down, but we’re getting ready to graduate 15 cadets in May and they should be able to work fully by fall… A lot of this comes from the support that you, the business community, has given us— along with support from council.”

To Lamb’s assessment, Moseley noted of the APD’s ride-along program, “Our newest (City Council) member, Bo Hess, is doing it right now. It’s really an invaluable experience…. It just shows me from our experiences that we can see what the average resident thinks.”

Next, an unidentified man asked about affordable housing funding.

Mosely answered, “What we’re doing is using FEMA funds and we’re working on a CDBD (Community Development block Grant) work plan. So some of that could be utilized for housing...”

She also noted, “Trust me, the desire for affordable housing is not going (away) anywhere. There’s still money in the pipeline to get us where we want to go.”

The mayor  added, “That’s going to be a challenge for us to do.”

An unidentified man asked, “As a property-owner, how did that ‘increase in value’ work? Can you give me a ‘Cliff Notes’ version?”

Manheimer replied, “So the county (Buncombe) collects all of the property taxes for the county —and remits to the city its share.”

She added, “Instead of growth for this year, we’re going to see some loss in property taxes....

“In Tuscaloosa Alabama, they can tax the food and beverage businessses. But we don’t have that any more.”

An unidentified woman stated, “Esther, you did a really good job, leading us, post-hurricane. Are you thinking about running again/”

With a smile and... ever-so-slowly, Manheimer said that she is “thinking about running again.”

At that point, Moseley, the vice mayor, said she also “is so glad that Mayor Manheimer was at the helm, post-hurricane.”

An unidentified man said that the damage left by Tropical Storm Helene on Sept. 27” is impacting city tourism — as we have a vagrancy problems and a cleanliness problem.”

Further, he said, “There have to be alternatives to raising revenue besides those two options” — property taxes and/or food and beverage taxes. “Is there any discussion of alternatives to raising property taxes? Maybe a bake sale?”

Manheimer answered, “Yes, there are, There’s only six entities in North Carolina with food and beverage taxes... We’re not a homerule state, we’re a modified Dillon rule state... We don’t have a food and beverage tax — they add 10 percent to your bill in Charleston, South Carolina... There’s a transit tax in some places.. We’ve talked about doing this for some time.”

Ullman noted the BID (Business Improvement District) in Asheville allows certain other revenue sources to be taxed. We’re now calling it the Downtown Improvement District. Passing that BID last year was very difficult.”

When an unidentified man asked, “Where are the funds — opioid funds,” he was told that the city is using its opioid funds for our fire department.”

Another unidentified man asserted, “I was encouraged to hear about the addition of the new police officers. Are we still losing police officers?”

The question was referred to APD Chief Lamb, who replied,
“We’re looking better. We’re losing fewer officers. We can bring ‘laterals’ (officers from other police departments) in at a higher rate.. A lot of times, we can get ‘laterals’ in (on the job) over a month or two. while new officers can take a year to get them trained.”

An unidentified man asked, “If we were to have tourism and business, as usual, what would that do? Would we (still) have a budget problem?’

Manheimer replied, “Again, the structure for revenue resources in North Carolina depends on property and sales taxes… so the costs with paying salaries” are a perpetual problem for local governments. “About two-thirds of our (the city’s) costs are employee pay and benefits....

“What we did last year was to raid the piggy bank. So we knew this year we’d be looking at raising taxes... If we were able to implement, for example, a food and beverage tax, it would impact our budget by $9 million, or so. It wouldn’t be insignificant...” 

Next, CIBO member Mark Delk told the city leaders that “a vast majority of your slides were about more, more, more” in spending.

He added that the budget proposal includes “only a 0.03 percent reduction in staff.... I’m concerned we’re not looking at cutting costs....

“What measures are you taking to be more efficient with other people’s money? ... I don’t see any.” 

Delk also questioned the effort by city officials to cut costs to balance the proposed new budget, asking, “What effort?”

In response, Manheimer said, “This is a challenge, I would say. What we hear (from constituents) is: ‘We need more services. We need more police officers...’

“I would say we’re all striving to do that,” she said in reference to operating on a tight budget. “We’re very aware of that.”

Also, the mayor told Delk, “I think we’re doing this on a shoestring, as it is.”

What’s more, Mainheimer said, “We have 93,000 people (living in Asheville), but in a place (Buncombe County) serving half-a-million people... We have to work within our means... If we ‘squish’ our citizens, nothing will be accomplished.”

In response, Delk suggested that the city form a committee of local business-owners to devise ideas for cutting city expenses, as there is an obvious “need to cut out some of the waste... There’s always housing here... We don’t need to build more.”