Mecklenburg County Commission Chairman Trevor Fuller says he doesn't want to raise taxes this year because the county expects to see a surplus in revenue from construction and other growth.
He spoke today in a State of the County address – but he says there's a growing threat to the county's prosperity: poverty. Fuller says he was shocked to learn from a University of North Carolina study that shows the county has some of the worst concentrations of poverty in the state. So he's creating a Chairman's Task Force on Poverty And Economic Mobility.
"This task force is not going to just producing another report that's going to gather dust on a bookshelf," Fuller says. "We are going to use the recommendations of the task force for meaningful action starting with the board of commissioners."
A separate study by Harvard and UC-Berkeley researchers shows how Charlotte is the most difficult large city in the country for people to rise out of poverty.
Fuller says newly-selected county manager Dena Diorio will also be addressing complaints from business owners to make the county more business friendly. He says she will be reviewing the county's permitting, inspection and code enforcement process soon.
