Where is Gastonia spending YOUR tax dollars. Take a look.
We realize that our figures below are not totally accurate. In fact, they are probably too low considering we have no record of what the city staff and elected officials do with all of the budget items that are not clearly labeled. Anyway, having made a disclaimer against our accuracy, we would like to invite anyone who knows of something we have left off to contact us. We will be happy to add or subtract in an effort to get the most accurate figure possible.
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Please note the items listed below are not in any particular order or time line.
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Downtown Park (including fountains and sculptures) $600,000.00
Sidewalk fiasco (The Mayor didn't like the original one) $23,000.00
Scarabeli's Rent Subsidy (It is now closed) $12,100.00
251 Main (rent subsidy) $10,800.00
Spindle City Café (rent and up-fit subsidies) $10,000.00
Susan C Anthony (rent subsidy) $7,500.00
Freeman's Pub (rent subsidy) $6,393.00
The Bottle Shoppe (rent subsidy) $6,450.00
GDDC Subsidies (paid from the special assessment tax of downtown businesses) $52,615.00
Kress Building (if purchased with the lease payments) $718,000.00
Conference Center and Parking Deck $9,000,000.00
Demolition and Previous Studies, Planning, etc. for Conference Center $1,500,000.00
Scheile Museum Addition $750,000.00
Architectural Design Services Assistance (the city helps you decide how to use your space) $9,000.00
Demolition (for the failed Aquatics Center - The Big Splash) $385,050.00
Purchase of the Fidelity Bank Building $725,000.00
GDDC Operating Budget (8 years) $1,200,000.00
Webb Theater Conversion (plans are to have a private developer pay the loans back) $700,000.00
City Employee Time and Pay for studies and applications for grants and awards (this is strictly a guess) $50,000.00
Downtown Wi-Fi $40,000.00
Insurance opt out payments for city council (so far) $82,000.00
Membership in the US Conference of Mayors ($5,269.00 x 11 years for Mayor Stultz) $57,959.00*
Sister Cities ($620.00 x 17 years - length of Gastonia's membership) $10,540.00
Rankin Lake Park Improvements $2,100,000.00
New Federal Bond Authorization $8,000,000.00
Nick's Prime Rib $700,000.00
All AMerica City Award Expenditures $2,500.00 (total guess as no one really knows what it actually cost the city)
Road Bonds $27,400,000.00
*This organization just awarded Gastonia the City Livability Award (or should we say Gastonia just paid for it)
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TOTAL $54,158,907.00
This represents $799.38 for every single resident of Gastonia (population 67751) !
Based on the average income ($36,924.00) for residents in Gastonia this total could
have paid one years salary for 1467 people!
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| There are some explanations that should be given. Some of the money for these projects comes from a special tax district or the Hotel Occupancy Tax (among others) that stipulate how the taxes can be spent. Some of it is grant and bond money as well. When you boil it all down, however, it is all tax money that came from a citizen's pocket or a guest in Gastonia. Our purpose is to question the spending habits of the city regardless of where the money came from. Keeping in mind there are a lot of things we have not added to the list yet and we have no idea how much extra should be added for all of the studies, traveling, management, subsidies for facilities not yet built, and more. Your money. How do you feel about all this? Please send us your thoughts by using the contact page. |
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