What a difference three years makes.
In 2020, following months of protests and criticism from racial justice activists, Asheville City Council reduced the city’s policing budget by $770,000. In her proposed budget for fiscal year 2023-24, City Manager Debra Campbell now wants to give the Asheville Police Department a bump of almost $4 million — an increase of more than 13% over current funding levels.
“That is unprecedented,” Campbell told Council members during a May 9 presentation on the budget. The APD boost is by far the largest driver of new spending proposed for the city’s general fund, which is mostly supported by property and sales taxes; budgeted expenditures would increase from about $159.1 million this fiscal year to $172.5 million in fiscal 2023-24, a roughly 8.4% bump.
Included in that overall increase is a 6% pay bump for sworn APD officers, compared with a 5% increase for all other city employees. Police also would receive extra compensation for holding an intermediate law enforcement certification, working night shifts or being on call. On the capital investment front, the APD would get new uniforms with “more technical fabric for durability and comfort,” as well as upgraded vehicle cameras.
“When we were meeting with the [Police Benevolent Association, a law enforcement trade group,] and [APD Chief David Zack], all that was explained to us, why that mattered and why we should put it together in this format,” said Mayor Esther Manheimer about the package of compensation boosts. Zack has been lobbying for his force to receive much higher pay, telling Asheville Watchdog in March that a starting APD officer should receive close to $60,000 per year versus the current rate of roughly $46,000.
General fund revenues from taxes and fees for fiscal 2023-24 are only expected to grow by about $5.4 million, and Campbell did not recommend an increase to the city’s property tax rate. That means Asheville will have to dip into its reserves for about $7.9 million to cover the planned hike in spending. According to the most recent available figures, published in June through the city’s annual comprehensive financial report, about $34.6 million is available.
Taylor Floyd, Asheville’s budget manager, called that use of savings “a bit unconventional” but said the city had a sufficient financial cushion. He projected that Asheville’s general fund balance, or money unspent after all budgeted expenses are accounted for, would remain above Council’s policy target (15% of expenditures, or about $25.9 million) at the end of the next fiscal year.
Several of those speaking during public comment said even the record APD budget increase wasn’t enough to meet the city’s needs. The department is operating at roughly 60% of its authorized capacity, and downtown businesses have increasingly raised concerns over public safety. Even after the proposed salary increases, starting APD officers would make less than they would in other North Carolina cities like Charlotte and Raleigh.
“Effectively, what you’re doing is not even keeping up with inflation,” argued resident David Rodgers. “If you guys want to make a change, we’re going to have to do something drastic. Six percent [salary increase] isn’t going to incentivize anyone to come here.”
Only one commenter, Daniel Dean, voiced the call for reform that had been shared by so many following the police murder of Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd. “We cannot just throw money at the Police Department and ignore the issues that brought thousands of people onto the streets in 2020 to protest police brutality,” Dean said. “Without putting the same increase in budget toward the root causes of crime — poverty and inequality — or community-based resources, we can only expect that this budget increase will ultimately serve the wealthiest among us rather than the most vulnerable.”
Council members will next discuss the budget proposal during a public hearing Tuesday, May 23. A vote to adopt the spending plan is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, June 13.
Homelessness count falls from 2022
The results of Buncombe County’s point in time count, shared May 9 by Homeless Strategy Division Manager Emily Ball, indicate a decrease in unsheltered homelessness from a 2022 peak. The count, which aims to tally every person sleeping on the streets, at a shelter or in transitional housing on a single night in January, recorded 171 unsheltered residents, down from 232 last year. (That figure remains well above the 2020 count of 65 unsheltered people.)
“I don’t think we’re done with any of the hard work, but I feel like we’re moving in a direction that we’re trying to,” Ball told Council. “I feel like we might look back at 2023 and go, ‘All right, that’s when things turned around.’”
The joint city-county Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee has started to work through recommendations outlined by the National Alliance to End Homelessness in a January report. Ball also noted that nearly 200 new units of supportive housing for homeless people are scheduled to open within the year, including 113 units at the former Ramada Inn in East Asheville.
The increase in APD funding is still insufficient. And they are dipping into the Reserve Fund to accomplish this increase; a politically “easy” but totally unsustainable approach.
The problem with this City is that with a meager tax base, we still try and do everything for everybody…. and do nothing really very well.
Instead, we need to do the core services (police, fire, water, stormwater, roads) very well, first and foremost and everything else needs to take a back seat.
Well said.
In a finite world that which cannot be sustained will not be sustained.
Look to Portland and San Francisco if you want a not so sneak-peek at coming attractions to Asheville.
I think George Carlin was said to have remarked—
“If you’re born into this world you get a ticket to the freak show. If you’re born in America, you get a front row seat!”
The third largest slice, $23 Million, is “Other”.
What EXACTLY is in “Other” that requires the largest slice outside of Fire and Law Enforcement?
I’ll bet the answer to THAT question will be both illuminating and infuriating.
It wasn’t entirely clear how the city was dividing “support services” and “other” in the budget. I think the first category is stuff like city admin, finance, city attorney, HR and communications, while the second includes things like development services, community/economic development, equity and sustainability.
Full details of how much would go to each department are available in the city manager’s proposed budget, which you can read at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1citd1vVJfDc93U_L7W6dXjHH8HC65ugK/view
So it seems that “Other” “…includes things like development services, community/economic development, equity and sustainability.”
Sounds to me like the third largest category of spending is yet MORE contacts with outside consultants providing multiple, repetitive, and generally worthless reports on how to do things that have very little to do with residents’ everyday lives and that local officials are too stupid to think of themselves.
We need to hire a consultant who will tell dem clownettes we done got too many consultants…but then, what consultant would want to kill their golden goose da way we killin’ ours?
What category does the money for McCormick Field upgrades fall into?