City Manager Tom Bonfield told Bull's Eye the other day that he's withholding full disclosure on the city's money situation until next Friday's City Council financial retreat.
But he did say, "The numbers are certainly getting worse." And there are some indications of the word to come in the talking points prepared for Bonfield's visit to the Triangle Community Coalition's annual meeting today.
Good news:
- Permits for building renovations went up from 1,694 to 2,227
- Value of those permits went up from,, $287 million to $512 million
- The Triangle doesn't have it as bad as some other places
Not-so-good news:
- New residential building permits fell from 1,713 in 2007 to 1,188 in 2008
- Value of those permits fell from $324 million to $247 million
- New commercial building permits fell from 209 to 77
- Value of those permits fell from $254 million to $188 million
- Site plan submissions fell from 396 to 360
- $5.5 million gap between Durham's current budget and projected 2009-'09 revenue
- Projected funding gap of $24 million to $40 million for fiscal 2010
To deal with the crunch, some months ago the city imposed a freeze on most hiring and out-of-state travel and is looking to save money everywhere it can, because the recession isn't likely to go away this year and we can't count on any federal stimulus to make it all better.
