Sales tax bill calls for choice between schools and city bus service

[DAMANgoldberg]

4. All of this because...

God forbid, a county wants to tax their own people to do what the state will not do and that is to fund the school system properly. I live in Mecklenburg County, the largest in the state. We have a 7.25% sales tax, of which 0.50% goes to CATS,, the local transit system. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has requested another 0.25% for teacher salaries that bring the total to 7.50%, but no...the state says this is too much, and the leader of their party spent 14 public years here allowing higher taxes to pay for transit, what is now Bank of America stadium, the original arena deal and what is now Time Warner Cable arena, and the original baseball stadium deal (BB&T Ballpark came on Anthony Foxx & Patrick Cannon's admins).

I am poor, rely on public transportation to get around, and disabled. I could really afford not to pay any more taxes, and I have no children in the school system. The extra 0.25% is painful, but it won't kill my already dead budget. We have enough issues with the mismanagement of CMS, but the teachers should get the resources they need to actually teach, and have no problem with that.