Letter to Gov. Easley The Honorable Michael Easley The State Capitol Raleigh February 7, 2002 Dear Governor Easley: The North Carolina Metropolitan Coalition, made up of elected officials from 19 larger cities with a combined population of over two million citizens, has closely followed the state budget news. As chief elected officials for our cities we respect the difficulty of managing the public's money in an unpredictable economic period. We are facing the same difficulties ourselves. We are writing as representatives for all the mayors of our member cities to request an opportunity to talk with you during our upcoming Coalition meeting in Raleigh next week. The Coalition has talked to your staff over the last few weeks about the chance to collaborate with you and your Administration as our Coalition establishes a strategic vision and plan for our state's cities. But as the elected executives within the Coalition, we would like to reiterate the importance of this request in light of your execution of an Emergency Budget Declaration and subsequent freeze on payment of specific local revenue sources. This action has caught our cities by surprise and it is important that we have the chance to better understand the challenges we both face that necessitated this action. We are now in the position of having to assess the impact on our current budgets, craft our adjustments and explain the situation to our citizens. Witholding our payments - more than half way through our budget year and at the same time that we are facing an economic downturn - places all our cities in a difficult position, now and in the future. So you can see how valuable it will be for us to have the chance to collaborate with you at this critical point. We certainly appreciate the magnitude of the challenge you face and recognize that you are working to move our state forward during a difficult time. The path for our state's future would not be complete, however, without consideration of the role of, and impact on, our cities - the economic growth engines in the state. We appreciate your consideration of our concerns and look forward to talking with you soon. Feel free to call either of us, or the Coalition's Director, Beau Mills. Sincerely, Mayor Patrick McCrory, City of Charlotte Mayor Keith Holliday, City of Greensboro