A view of the city

Onion headline: "Growth fails to pay for self"

The News and Observer reports that Wake County faces a budget gap of $51.5 million.

The biggest source of the shortfall is school costs:  "The biggest increase comes from the Wake County school board, which has requested $54.7 million more in county funding."

The paper reports that "Johnna Rogers, the county budget director, said she has never seen a budget gap as big as the current $51.5 million."

What's going on here?  The developers and builders said that growth would pay for itself!

What's the "big idea"?

"I can't help but think that workshops at Irish pubs about creating rivers that will need to flow uphill are just intentional diversions so that the homefolk don't notice the developers down the street in the Cardinal Club cooking up the meat and potatoes of the comprehensive plan."

-- Lunsford Lane, April 30, 2008, in response to No panaceas