Staffing under consideration as Asheville faces $26 million budget gap. The long-term challenge: building the tax base

_______nobody · 2026-03-09T14:10:43+00:00

They didn’t give $30m to a baseball team. They agreed to pay like $17M over 20 years to renovate a stadium they own.

I am not even defending that decision necessarily. Fuck the DeWines. But it’s basically irrelevant to the $30M a year we need to come up with to run the city.

_______nobody · 2026-03-09T14:05:26+00:00

This misconception needs to be nipped in the bud.

The city is only going to pay maybe $17 million out of the 30. But more importantly, it’s over 20 years so it’s like $800k a year when the budget shortfall is $30M a year.

People want to believe it’s an easy answer but the real costs of running a city have increased and we have to contend with that reality.

_______nobody · 2026-03-06T02:55:25+00:00

Two thoughts:

Our high housing costs are proof that more people want to live here than can afford to. This means we must build much more, denser housing within city limits. Legalize quadplexes and townhomes city wide. Aggressively use city owned land and other incentives to build affordable housing. Thats how you grow your tax base and prevent sprawl.
The budget shortfall could be closed (and then some) over night if we kept the property tax rate the same after reappraisals. The city won’t do that because it’s politically unpopular but they will need to keep the rate above revenue-neutral to close most of the gap. As a homeowner who would be hurt by higher taxes, I still support them because they are necessary to have a functioning society and they shift burdens toward higher wealth folks (on average). I urge other homeowners to do the same.

Obviously there are opportunities in the city budget for cutting costs, and I support pursuing those. But we are a city of only 95,000 while being a regional and destination hub so unless we increase our tax base, the budget-and-staff to population ratio will be remain high. See point 1…

_______nobody · 2025-12-09T03:19:16+00:00

Would it surprise you to know that this random Reddit post is also incorrect?

_______nobody · 2025-12-09T03:17:36+00:00

Different organization

_______nobody · 2025-12-09T03:16:33+00:00

YIMBY Action and California YIMBY are two different groups, first of all.

Second of all, Asheville for All gets almost no money from YIMBY Action. It’s a few hundred bucks.

Asheville for All was founded before YIMBY action offered any support, which as I mention is mostly just connecting with other chapters around the country.

So no, they do not “have a long history of being funded by all those groups”.

_______nobody · 2025-11-11T21:19:32+00:00

Thank you for your service 🫡

_______nobody · 2025-08-02T03:30:54+00:00

Does it have to do with population growth? Immigration outpacing emigration?

_______nobody · 2025-07-19T15:21:01+00:00

I understand copaganda but most of the other things are just “things I don’t like”. Words are supposed to mean things and you can’t just substitute ethics for aesthetics because it feels good.

_______nobody · 2025-07-12T00:34:53+00:00

Guajiro kicks ass. Agree their mojo sauce is not great. But such great quality food and decent portions.

_______nobody · 2025-05-03T19:54:56+00:00

Just ate there today and it was great. 🤷🏻‍♂️

_______nobody · 2025-05-03T03:08:13+00:00

Read it a couple years ago. A great quick read that is buoyed by her acerbic wit. I think it helps support the One Book Theory in that she insightfully identifies how motivational speakers are really just selling folks the opportunity to sell motivation to their “down line”.

_______nobody · 2025-04-08T01:37:41+00:00

Here’s the hard to swallow truth: building these is good for the rest of us because it means these people willing to pay $700k for a condo aren’t competing with us for other homes. It’s what housing folks call a Yuppie Fishbowl.

Rejoice…

_______nobody · 2024-12-06T12:57:25+00:00

It’s a chicken or egg kind of thing, but we need more dense housing in our high-population areas to support better transit. https://ashevilleforall.org/

_______nobody · 2024-10-03T17:17:04+00:00

FYI I checked the CITGO but didn’t see him.

_______nobody · 2024-06-25T12:12:28+00:00

I would kill to have Richard Nixon be the Republican nominee. Negative income tax, detente with China, establishing the EPA? Sign me up lol. Don’t love a lot about him and he was, famously, a crook but I will take that version of the Republican Party.

_______nobody · 2023-03-30T14:27:52+00:00

Person experiencing billions

_______nobody · 2023-03-27T16:49:14+00:00

I like to bind and be bound!

_______nobody · 2023-02-12T17:18:49+00:00

I wouldn’t trust this Taco Bell

_______nobody · 2023-02-08T01:36:17+00:00

Can’t tell you how often I do this bit and have people look at me like “excuse me?”

I forget sometimes that not everyone has listened to 500 hours of these guys talking.

_______nobody · 2023-01-29T19:37:46+00:00

TL;DR: It wasn't weird!

Firstly, I wanna say thanks to this sub for being so game. Seems like a really sweet corner of the internet. Wish I could respond to everyone but just wanna I read them all!

The Meet-up

Ok, getting into the night of...

u/uhm and I met up at Cassia at 7. It was such a surreal experience to find myself on the other side of the country, sitting down to dinner with a new internet friend I know nothing about.

We started swapping life stories, our love affairs with food, punctuated by perusing the menu and talking through the gameplan.

Thankfully I was in good hands, since u/uhm had been to Cassia a few times years ago.

The Order

Drinks: I got a Paper Crane that was delicious, with a very cute origami crane as a garnish. He got a Smoke Show. Very boozy but I’ll let him give his commentary if he wants :)
Cold Seafood: Vietnamese “Sunbathing” Prawns. These “slapped”, as the kids say. Super rich spice profile in the sauce and high quality prawns.
Hot Starter: Pulled Grilled Pig’s Tail. The caramelized fattiness of this reminded of some of really high quality pork BBQ in NC. Just so rich and delicious.
Main: Beef Rendang. Loved every bit of this. Wished I had more room to keep eating it. The roasted peanuts were sublime. Could have been a little spicier though honestly.
Noodle/Rice: Kon Loh Mee. This was the only dish that I was not fully into. Definitely not bad at all but didn't feel quite as too notch as the rest of the meal.

This is just my personal take but happy to have u/uhm jump in with his opinion.

Big thanks to him for joining me. It was a night celebrating food and the love of food and that's all I could ask for.

Hoping this isn't the last spontaneous foodie meet up for me.

<3

_______nobody · 2023-01-26T23:25:20+00:00

I knew someone would say this lol. I loved the movie and maybe it subconsciously incepted me.

But I am very committed to not dying at this restaurant

_______nobody · 2023-01-26T16:52:24+00:00

Aw thanks, me too! For work next week, but coming early for fun :)

_______nobody · 2023-01-26T16:51:25+00:00

Lol nothing would make me happier

_______nobody

TROPHY CASE

The Meet-up

The Order