The budget for Mount Pleasant for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 was $111,715,803. What revenue measures would you support to fund the municipality’s annual operating budget in future years?
I personally spent time with the chief accountant of the town and reviewed the budget and past years. It is her opinion, and now mine, that we are financially sustainable with things being as they are. As far as additional revenues, I think the better answer is to carefully watch our costs. Also, greater use of our Town recreational facilities such as bringing in travelling soccer teams, as an example will certainly help. Also reevaluation of our use of tax free revenue bonds for financing major projects would keep interest costs down. Mount Pleasant has excellent credit and can take advantage of low interest costs.
Some municipalities have developed a Cultural Art Master Plan for their towns and cities. What are your views on creating such a plan?
I believe that our town needs a Cultural Arts Center. At the last Town Council meeting the vote was made to purchase approximately 30 acres of land in Carolina Park for roughly $6 million coming from the Covid Relief Fund. To my knowledge, there are no current plans on how to use the land. It would be a great place to build a Cultural Arts Center, if financially sustainable. Naming opportunities would be a good source of revenue. Many organizations have names from donors on buildings, seats, etc. These funds would help with the investment. Financial sustainability with very limited help from the Town is the key.
What concrete ideas would you like to see the Town implement today that might help alleviate traffic congestion over the next five years?
As to traffic, certainly synchronizing the traffic signals at peak hours would definitely help. Better use of the side roads would help, and reevaluating housing projects. Each new house usually has two vehicles. We need to pause for awhile until the road infrastructure catches up with the growth. Also, reevaluation of new requests for density zoning where more homes are put into smaller areas would be a help.
What is the most critical issue facing Mount Pleasant over the next four years? How would you address this issue?
Pretty much covered in question #3. I received over 100 replies to my survey and traffic problems were on almost all of them. More bike ways and sidewalks would also help. As I said in #3 better use of the side roads on Johnnie Dodds would help.
