WHQR's Sunday Edition is a free weekly newsletter delivered every Sunday morning. You can sign up for Sunday Edition here.
Trump’s latest attack on public media
Many of you have written or called in to ask about President Donald Trump’s request to claw back over $1 billion in funding in Congressional funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
I won’t rehash what I’ve written about this in the past except to say a couple of quick things. Yes, this will cause significant financial damage to NPR and WHQR; there’s no point in sugarcoating that. Some public media stations in more rural areas, which rely more heavily on CPB grants, may not recover. And while NPR will survive, it will definitely have to make changes, which could include higher costs for programming – those are fees paid by stations like us here at WHQR, which means in addition to losing our CPB grant, we could face additional challenges.
As a friend of mine who works in PR says, this is a “sup-optimal situation with non-ideal timing.”
But, WHQR will find a way to keep on trucking. We’re looking at new grants, new partnerships, and we will also probably need more support from you (I won’t dance around that, either). Many of you have already reached out to help, and — on behalf of the news team — I’m incredibly grateful. Thank you.
You can find more updates on the federal funding situation here, and an interview our station manager Kevin Crane did with WWAY here.
Public-private peccadillos and problems
I received a few inquiries about a recent story that appeared on WECT, about a new cafe opening in the Skyline Center (the former ThermoFisher/PPD building that is now home to City Hall). The city sent a press release on Monday, touting the new cafe and advertising a ribbon cutting for its opening.
The WECT piece includes this line, “When asked by media outlet WHQR if it’s appropriate for the city to use public resources to promote a private business, the city provided the following statement to WECT...”
Since WHQR didn’t run a piece on the cafe, some of you asked if that was a typo. It wasn’t. I did respond to the release because it felt odd for the city to use public resources to advertise a private business, even if it is a tenant in the city-owned building. (I probably could have stopped short of a ‘reply-all,’ but I was curious what the other media outlets on the email thought about it.)
While the city funds the Downtown Business Alliance and there’s a special tax district that funds Wilmington Downtown Incorporated, nonprofits that support and promote downtown businesses, there was something off about the city directly doing that.
It’s not that I don’t celebrate downtown businesses but, frankly, there are a lot of other businesses — downtown, yes, but plenty in the city’s many other commercial areas — that would love that kind of spotlight.
As one business owner I know said, “must be nice.”
Governments aren’t supposed to pick winners and losers in commerce, and that’s what this felt like.
I’ll say, I did end up having a good conversation with the city, whose new director of corporate affairs, Lauren Edwards, told me they debated internally for some time about the release, understanding that it’s not the norm for a city to hype up a particular business. The city’s unusual role as a landlord plays a part in this, because to be a good steward of public money (of which $68 million was spent to purchase the Skyline Center) the city feels like it has to not just recruit but support tenants — to prevent the taxpayer from footing the bill for empty square footage. That means advocating for a particular business in a way local government otherwise probably wouldn’t, in their opinion.
More broadly, Edwards said the city’s “narrative” is that the Skyline Center is a growing civic and economic hub for the downtown area. (I might have picked a different word, but I take her point).
The lines around local government’s traditional roles tend to get blurred (and sometimes erased) under the banner of ‘economic development.’ Public-private projects — or P3s, as development wonks like to call them — including the county’s new government center and Project Grace, or the development of the Riverwalk and the River Place project, all involve public money that ends up commingling with private investment.
When the end result is popular, fewer questions get asked. But I’m not sure the city has exactly won over the public when it comes to its new digs at the Skyline Center (especially since paying it off but a crimp in their budget this year after officials claimed it wouldn’t).
I’m aware that I’m a bit of a crank about P3s, but that is my job. I’m not sorry I gave them a little bit of guff about it — but I'm happy to report they took it well.
Austerity measures
Speaking of public money, you may have noticed austerity is a more pronounced theme during the current local government budget cycle than in past years.
My colleague Kelly Kenoyer has been following the City of Wilmington’s budget process, which — as part of New Hanover County — has been impacted by the recent revaluation that dramatically increased property values.
The city’s been trying to hew as close as possible to ‘revenue neutral’ — meaning people’s tax bills won’t go up much, regardless of the shifting tax rate — despite carrying that pesky Skyline debt.
Our rural reporter Nikolai Mather has been busy as well, tracking budgets around southeastern NC. Notably, Brunswick, Columbus, and Pender counties are all on different revaluation cycles than New Hanover — so they’re not dealing with the sometimes confusing interplay of tax rate versus actual tax costs this year. Pender is slated to reassess properties next year, Brunswick’s next revaluation is in 2027, and Columbus won’t have a new assessment until 2029. With major developments occurring across the region, all three counties will likely see significant upticks in property values, and they’ll have to figure out whether to reinvest the additional tax revenue or try and keep their belts tight.
In Pender County this year, despite some turnover on the board and the firing of the county manager, the budget got done on time (although apparently just under the wire) and basically maintains the status quo. Same for Brunswick County, minus some of the turmoil. Columbus County, meanwhile, actually made cuts — about two dozen positions. Some of those are vacant positions that the county will phase out, but at least eight current county employees could be laid off.
And then there’s New Hanover County, which has been vigorously debating where to set its tax rate after this year’s reval. After staff initially proposed 35.5 cents, then reduced that to 35 cents, a majority of commissioners asked for a 33.9-cent tax rate. But, last week, Republican Chairman Bill Rivenbark, who had previously been a part of that majority, had a change of heart.
Now, according to documents shared by the county, it appears a majority of commissioners are pursuing a 30.9-cent tax rate, which would require shaving another $24 million or so off of the county’s nearly half-billion budget.
County staff have prepared sample budgets based on a host of different tax rates from 29 cents to 33.9 cents. All include some of the same major adjustments, including borrowing $8 million for capital outlay (purchases over $5,000, like vehicles, HVAC, and equipment) and tapping the county’s fund balance ($4 million for the 30.9-cent rate) and $3.7 million from the county’s mental health fund to pay for school nurses.
The budgets would also cut $1.6 million from nonprofits with a recommendation to have The Endowment pick up that funding (a move that would, of course, require the approval of The Endowment's board). The proposals also eliminate or pause $3 million in workforce housing, $2.3 million for public safety technology conversion, and $850,000 in enhancement funding (but preserving money for the sheriff’s office, senior resource center, and veterans services). Those enhancements would have included additional staff for the New Hanover County Board of Elections (three part-time and two full-time positions).
It would also scrap the addition of five clay tennis courts at Echo Farms (budgeted at $925,000, all of the bids have gone over by 40%). Another $1.16 million would come from scaling back social worker ratios to state standards.
Smaller cuts include $319,000 for court video equipment, $315 in supplementary funding for the District Attorney's office, $250,000 for rent to house detectives at the Community Justice Center, and $340,000 for Legal Aid (including the 'Second Chance' program.).
The budget proposals also include staffing cuts, the first time I can remember New Hanover County contemplating significant layoffs or phasing out vacant positions. Depending on the target tax rate, they include across-the-board staffing reductions between 2.5% (for the 30.9-cent rate) and 10% (for the 29-cent rate).
Most of these cuts — about 75% — would come from removing positions.
As County Manager Chris Coudriet noted in an email to commissioners, "Because 75 percent of the operating costs, excluding the Sheriff and the public school system, are people expenses, I am using a position as a proxy for impact. I am not suggesting we would achieve the full scope of reductions through people. It’s a measure, but it is the clearest measure to offer scale. If the board chooses an across the board cut, we will develop a plan that removes that spend from the final, adopted budget before July 1. We would also create a glidepath to effectuate those reductions over the course of the fiscal year."
If commissioners aim for the 30.9-cent rate it would remove the equivalent of 40 positions, which would reduce spending by almost $3.7 million. The most austere option, a 29.5-cent rate, would cut the equivalent of 159 positions, removing about $14.8 million from the budget.
[Note: Our original newsletter said this could include layoffs, but depending on the level of cuts, it may be that these are positions that were slated to be hired as part of enhancements that are now being removed from the budget. We'll update this article when we get clarity on that.]
It’s worth noting that none of the budget scenarios contemplate staffing cuts to New Hanover County Schools or the Sheriff’s Office.
Commissioners meet Thursday at 2 p.m. to hash out the latest budget iteration. We’ll be there to see what happens.
NPR’s Leila Fadel
For those who asked, yes, this week’s The Newsroom broadcast featured only excerpts of Leila Fadel’s keynote speech at last month’s WHQR luncheon. We didn’t have room for the whole thing, plus the lively Q’n’A session, on top of the interview we did at the studio. But, fear not, you can find the whole thing in the online version (which you can find here) or in the podcast version.
The Newsroom: Shooting the Messenger: NPR's Leila Fadel on the First Amendment and a free press
