Require voter approval for all new borrowings of Raleigh and Wake County

PETITION FOR
No new debt without voter approval
We need 5,000 signatures to force a referendum

Although the North Carolina Constitution Article 5 Section 4 clearly states, with only a few exceptions, local governments must obtain voter approval to increase debt, both the City of Raleigh and Wake County have twisted the allowed exceptions to increase debt without voter approval.

Raleigh, NC currently has approximately $1.2 billion of debt. Of this amount, $420 million is non-voter approved debt and Wake County has an additional $314 million of non-voter approved debt. The Raleigh City Council has also considered borrowing another $458 million to fund the Lightner Public Safety Center and several other projects, without obtaining voter approval.

29% of the current Raleigh general fund budget is allocated for debt service just to cover the existing debt. This percentage of the budget is more than $200 million. Increasing the debt by another $458 million will add substantially to the debt service cost.
Increasing public debt without voter approval effectively gives elected officials a blank check to pursue any project regardless of merits.

We propose an amendment to the Raleigh City Charter and a new Wake County ordinance clarifying the intent of the North Carolina Constitution to require voter approval for all public debt with only one explicitly defined exception. The only exception would be to fund or refund a valid existing debt originally approved by the voters.

Wake County Taxpayers Association
"Human beings will generally exercise power when they can get it, and they will exercise it most undoubtedly in popular governments under pretense of public safety." --Daniel Webster
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." --John Adams