Mecklenburg's Fiscal Discipline Paying off

[A2]

This is great news. From an invesment standpoint this gives Mecklenburg County a leg up on attracting capital for things like schools which we are in dire need of.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte...ml?surround=lfn

How many of us from UP believe that this continued financial strength will improve our current situation with schools accross the county???

I am hopeful with better funding and hopefully better leadership, we can turn the school system around and start to address the concerns we all have with a lack luster school system.

A2

[rockhilljames]

The school system needs better leadership. Not necessarily from Gorman, but from a top-level administration that is more worried about politics than the children they're supposed to be educating.

[monsoon]

Indeed. The school system's problems are not related to having enough money.

But the Mecklenburg credit rating is good. If the northern towns and S. Iredell decide to buy Adelphia's bankrupt cable TV franchise, they will use Mecklenburg's good credit rating to finance the purchase since it is a lot more money than the towns can handle.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Indeed. The school system's problems are not related to having enough money.

But the Mecklenburg credit rating is good. If the northern towns and S. Iredell decide to buy Adelphia's bankrupt cable TV franchise, they will use Mecklenburg's good credit rating to finance the purchase since it is a lot more money than the towns can handle.

[monsoon]

Why does Meck want to get into the cable business?

[MZT]

The city of Anaheim handled the power, water and trash when I lived there. And rates remained stable through the CA power crisis. So sometimes there are examples of government entities managing utilities well. (I wish Charlotte offered the brown "yard waste" bins to its residents that Anaheim did... Bagging leaves takes so much time.)

Like Huntersville, High Point also owns it's power. It gives the city some leverage on people, for them to pay up on other bills. I also think High Point long ago owned the telphone system when it was called "North State Telephone". If I'm right about that, it's not completely unprecedented for a NC city to own a communications system.

[Mobuchu]

I also think High Point long ago owned the telphone system when it was called "North State Telephone". If I'm right about that, it's not completely unprecedented for a NC city to own a communications system.

[monsoon]

Of course, if they can, more power to them. Anyone know where other local governments are running a modern cable or phone system?

[Miesian Corners]

What happens when someone get offended by what they saw on the government-owned cable TV? Is it a for-profit business? Would the towns end up contracting TWC to run it due to budget constraints? Finally, in a region where no two governing bodies can agree on anything, how will they see eye to eye on where the main office is, who gets how much of the revenue, which cronies get the jobs running it, etc?

[monsoon]

TWC is running it now. If this deal goes through, TWC will be gone as the consortium has said it will hire another company to run it for them. The towns in the North have been very good at collaborations with each other so this should not be any different. I can imagine that if they try to censor their channels then they will just lose out to Satellite which already carries stuff that you won't see on cable TV anyway.