School bonds finally get last OK
Oct. 4—GUILFORD COUNTY — Finally, nearly five months after winning the approval of voters, Guilford County officials can begin work on the first school projects to be paid for with this year's $1.7 billion bond package.
The N.C. Local Government Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday, with one abstention, to approve the county's plan for managing the debt, but not until after nearly an hour and a half of discussion dominated by State Treasurer Dale Folwell throwing bucket after bucket of cold water at it.
Folwell said he thinks the bond package is much too large and already is unfairly burdening Guilford County's taxpayers.
But he also acknowledged that many of the county's schools are in terrible shape, costs are rising, and the projects will only get much more expensive if delayed.
"The $1.7 billion, based on the promises you made to people, has got to be off by a lot," he said.
Guilford County Schools Superintendent Whitney Oakley emphasized that the school system's master plan puts the schools that are in the worst shape — schools that members of the commission acknowledged are in appalling condition — at the front of the line for projects.
"This is what the kids are sitting in now," she said.
Folwell snapped back sharply at Oakley's suggestion that delaying projects effectively would punish the students in those schools.
"I don't think I or anybody else on this board wants to punish kids, so I think that was inappropriate," he told her.
But Folwell seemed to fall back after vocal support for the bonds by commission members Nancy Hoffman, who also is on the Greensboro City Council, and John Burns, a former Wake County commissioner who grew up in High Point.
Burns also countered part of Folwell's opposition by saying that voters approved the bond proposal, and if taxpayers become angry at the tax burden, then the Guilford officials behind it will suffer the consequences.
"It's not upon me to save county commissioners and school board members from electoral consequences," he said.
In the end, Folwell announced he would abstain from voting.
"I hope you all are right and I hope that I'm wrong," he told the other commission members.
Tuesday's vote removed the final hurdle preventing county officials from being able to use any of the bond money even for planning and design work.
Even though 61% of voters in the May primary approved the bond proposal, it still required review from the Local Government Commission, whose approval is needed before any municipality can take on new debt.
But that review was delayed for months by a protest filed by former commissioner Alan Branson, who contended that county government officials used public resources improperly to encourage support of the referendum issue.
The commission finally took up the Guilford County bond package on Sept. 22, but because of Folwell's intense skepticism and some questions by other board members the board voted to postpone consideration.
