[Music] [Music] [Music] our second uh fiscal year budget listing session uh we really look forward to hearing from you this morning and really if you have questions comments concerns Kudos that's what this time is all about is for us to hear from you um we have a couple of Staff members joining us today so I'd like to give them a moment to introduce themselves good morning Sarah Hazel Chief sustainability and resiliency officer let me try that again I don't think I was on green good morning Sarah Hazel Chief sustainability and resiliency officer good morning Brent Kagel interim CEO Catz good morning star web senior operations manager for housing Hannah bromberger assistant director of strategy and budget good morning Ethan Smith strategy and budget manager good morning Angela Charles directive charlot Waters good morning Tiffany Blackwell I'm in strategy and budget all right thank you guys for joining us this morning too uh just to give you an overview of how today will flow we'll have a brief presentation uh and we'll open the floor for questions after that you are able to either drop your questions in the chat or you can raise your virtual hand and it'll look like a little high five on your screen and we will unmute you and allow for you to ask questions of the panel um until then if you could uh keep your cameras on if you would like for us to be able to see your face if not it's not a requirement and outside of that uh prepare any questions that you have in advance and we look forward to being able to answer them with that I'd like to turn it over to our assistant strategy and budget director Hannah bromberger for our presentation today thanks Cherry good morning everyone thank you for spending your time with us on this Tuesday Morning um we have a brief presentation about 10 minutes or so just to give an overview of the budget process uh and where we are in the budget development process and we've been doing these listening sessions for a few years now now so there's some some repeat questions that we tend to get so we've tried to incorporate those into the presentation as well um to go ahead and hit them from the beginning so uh we'll pull up the presentation here shortly and get started okay great thanks Sherry um so want to talk a little bit about uh property tax uh residents pay one property tax bill and that Bill gets split between two entities so about uh a third of it goes to the city of Charlotte and about two-thirds of it goes to mecklinburg County and mecklinburg county is uh responsible for social services like what you see on the screen sort of Education Public Health uh the court system the county jail and the city is responsible for Public Safety and for infrastructure the chart on the right lists the the five largest allocations of property tax across the county and the city uh so the the largest portion goes to CMS our school system followed by the police department and then Health and Human Services so we'll dig deeper now into that onethird of property tax that goes specifically to the city of Charlotte which is who we are we all work for the city of Charlotte um so that third that goes to the city of Charlotte is split further two different ways about 80% goes to what we call our general fund which which supports our day-to-day operations so think about uh how we pay our firefighters how we pay our Solid Waste workers how we pay our police officers and about 20% goes to the capital program so the capital program funds our our five-year uh capital investment plan which supports projects like sidewalks corridors of opportunity um construction of a new fire station as our city grows um and this Capital program is also where we provide many of our affordable housing investments the pie chart on the right oh sorry than the pie chart on the right uh has a breakdown in more detail of how this this third of your property tax gets split um and you can see that the housing and the transportation wedges of the pie chart are a little bit smaller than you would anticipate but don't forget that that wedge of the pie chart that's pulled out that says Capital support is really largely for transportation and for housing one of the most common questions that we get is uh why is the funding allocation for Public Safety so large um and the reason for that is unlike a lot of city services police and fire operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year and so that means in order for us to have uh one worker in any part of the city at a given time we actually have to employ five employees in order to do that so just an employees alone out of our general fund Public Safety represents about 65% of the employees in the general fund and more specifically if you look at the 13 police divisions that are sort of in pastel colors uh on the left if you take the average population within any of those divisions uh the population is actually large enough to be uh one of the 15 largest cities in North Carolina so the gray and white chart in the middle here is just sort of a different way of looking at that that same information that was shared on the pie chart earlier uh these are are the largest allocations within the city budget but what I want to point to here is on the right the Enterprise funds um we have four different departments at the city of Charlotte that are Enterprise funds they're listed there Aviation Charlotte Area Transit System which we call cats uh Charlotte water which provides water and sewer and storm water and uh those four Enterprise funds they serve much larger than just the city of Charlotte and so they don't receive any property tax they are funded in other ways so Aviation for example is funded with business fees um of those that that transact at the airport uh cats the transit system is uh funded with with user fees but also with a half cent sales tax and water and storm water are funded primarily with user fees and we have the directors here for three of those four funds if you have any questions about that and in the bottom right you'll see special Revenue funds these are funds that are restricted for very specific purposes so think of Grants if we uh are awarded a grant for a very specific P purpose and we can only use those funds for that purpose or something like a hotel or meals tax that are restricted by state law to fund tourism activities so this graphic is another way of looking at how we split our two largest funding sources property tax and sales tax um across different funds at the city of Charlotte uh similarly to property tax the largest portion of sales tax funds are operating expenses in the general fund with just under 30% of sales tax funding different parts of the capital program our debt service fund which helps pay our long-term debt that we take out and then also pgo fund um which tends to be uh one-time expenses so the largest portion of our capital investment plan are our general obligation bonds and these bonds um have to be approved by the voters and typically they're presented to the voters every two years in even number calendar years so right now we're in 2024 and so we are anticipating that a bond will be presented to the voters on the November ballad this year um there's a process to get there first the city manager has to propose the five-year CIP and then city council can can tweak it they have to adopt it and then once it's adopted it is then presented to the voters so right now based on current revenues we're anticipating that the 2024 Bond will be about 228 million total across the three bonds of housing bonds Transportation bonds and neighborhood bonds an important thing to know about the capital investment plan is that it's a five-year plan but each year city council only adopts the immediate next fiscal year the four out years of The Five-Year Plan are really truly just a plan so uh there will be tweaking and adjustments each year uh as we get to that to that next year um and so right now we're working on the fy2 budget or the planned 2024 Bond uh this graphic shows the planned future bonds by category and uh more details available online in our uh adopted budget book we tend to receive a lot of questions about housing bonds so I wanted to to give sort of a quick overview of our housing bonds and our Housing Trust Fund which is uh which is the which is what our housing bonds primarily fund so prior to 2018 you can see on this graph that our housing Bonds were typically about 10 to 15 million per Bond since 2018 uh when city council first increased the housing bond to 50 million the voters have continued to approve three consecutive 50 million affordable housing bonds right now there's another 50 million affordable housing Bond planned in 2024 but we still have months of conversation until we present that budget to city council and until City Council uh begins to adjust it and so all of this historical funding in the Housing Trust Fund has supported the creation and the preservation of over 12,000 affordable housing units since the Housing Trust Fund was created so I want to talk a little bit about how we build our budget every year um there's some routine steps that we go through so first we forecast our Revenue we use economic data to project all of our Revenue sources and we compare those to where we are in this current year and then we look at our expenses and we begin to itemize um which Services might be increasing you know you you would hope that your services stay consistent but unfortunately that's not the way that it works between cont contractual increases or inflation and so we have to get those sort of exact amounts of expense increases then we always seek out as many efficiencies as possible um and then ultimately we have to consider increases and decreases to service levels uh city council has priorities that we're always trying to advance and so um we try and see how we can do that within our our existing revenue streams and all of this is in an effort uh to avoid any sort of tax increase the city of Charlotte has a long history of being a AAA rated Financial organization which means that our finances have been managed well and our credit is as high as it can be and much of our positive credit rating is thanks to these three principles uh every year we produce a structurally balanced budget which um to use sort of a a personal finance analogy means that we're not using our credit card to pay for ongoing expenses we fully fund our reserves so as the budget May grow from year to year we're making sure that we add to those reserves so that we have about 16% available uh for the general fund and we have a steady state debt affordability plan uh which means that we have a long-term model in our Capital plan in our Capital program uh so that we know how much affordability there is consistently and it doesn't require a tax increase so we regularly compare ourselves to the cost of service of other cities in North Carolina here's three different graphs that are sort of stacked together Charlotte is represented in in lime green in each of these so on the top left graph you can see that that the city of Charlotte currently has the lowest property tax rate of all of the largest cities in North Carolina on the top right you can see that the city of Charlotte is the only city out of the largest cities in North Carolina that has not raised property taxes in the last five years and along the bottom there uh what we've tried to do is sort of put the total cost of government so not just property tax but also sales tax um our fees for service like Solid Waste fees water fees we've tried to incorporate all of those and even when you bring all of those in we still maintain the lowest cost of service per household compared to the largest cities and so we regularly look at this data we're regularly Benchmark marking ourselves and we're really proud of the value of service that we're able to provide to our residents so this is a graphic of our city council ultimately city council is the decider of the budget essentially they share their priorities with us throughout the year um it starts with the annual strategy meeting that they have annually it's a several day meeting where they um establish their priorities and then they share their priorities with us throughout the year during committee meetings at business meetings through the budget workshop and so the city manager's office and staff hear those priorities and do our best to uh sort of present an initial proposed budget that aligns with what we've heard from City Council and so as we talk about our budget development process uh I mentioned that the mayor and city council have their annual strategy meeting in January so that has already happened um we have actually already had our first budget Workshop as well our community engagement uh began in January and runs through April this is the second of our listening sessions we have uh two more in March uh um and so we'll have one more workshop in March as well and then the city manager will propose the budget in early May we'll have a public hearing on that proposed budget and then we'll have several more meetings in May with city council where they will make adjustments to the proposed budget and then ultimately adopt the budget in June and the new fiscal year begins July one so as I mentioned before we have a couple more opport unities to engage um an in-person listening session March 14th and another virtual session March 20th and then that that budget public hearing on May 13th but we'd ask you to also engage with us through our community input survey there's a QR code on the screen and then The Balancing Act is sort of a fun simulation where you get to sort of see what we do day in and day out and the the tough tradeoffs that have to be made and then lastly email us anytime at strategy and budget charlot nc.gov we're continually checking that email address so if you have any questions or thoughts that come up after this meeting just send us an email there and we'll get back to you thank you so I'll send it to Tiffany now great um thank you so much for that great presentation we're excited to hear from um all of the attendees who have joined so feel free to use the chat feature the Q&A feature within the WebEx you can also raise your hand and then to speak and we can um have you uh come off mute and turn your camera on and you can speak directly with the panel I do want to recognize a few a couple elected officials that are on the meeting today we have mayor V LS and council member Mayfield online today I don't know if either one of you would like to speak for a moment I got a away from council member Mayfield okay sounds good okay um now it's our turn to hear from you we're excited to hear what questions or comments you have um I also want to point out that even if you don't have a question if you just have some feedback that you'd like to offer our team captures that feedback and we incorporate that in the big package that we submit to city council with all of our participatory budget engagement opportunities that we've done throughout the fiscal year I do uh have one question that just popped up and that's what happens at a budget public hearing yeah good question um so it's a similar format to other public hearings that we have on other items throughout the year um essentially it is at one of our business meetings so I think this one is um the second Monday in May of this year and you can sign up with the city clerk and come and uh have two to three minutes to speak to city council so city council will be there uh at the dis and they will listen to your input and and you can essentially share your all of that helps inform city council as they head into a series of meetings later in May to make adjustments to the budget okay great and I think we can drop the link to how to sign up from the city clerk's office into the chat and then confirm the date we can put that in the chat as well so thank you so much um another question are there any programs that can help with my high water bill uh there are uh programs um out that can help you with that the first um my first piece of advice would be to call 311 and talk to someone in our customer care center so as a result of covid what Charlotte water did is that um we stood up a group of employees and created um a customer care a center to streamline efforts that our customers would go through to get assistance um for their water bills also there are many nonprofits that we um refer um people in our community to and we want to um facilitate that so um first you know first line of defense call 311 ask uh to be forwarded to the customer care center it's located in our customer service Division and then we will work um from there to uh help help someone get assistance okay great uh we have a question about cats and how does cats decide the location and the frequency of bus routes yeah so cats when we talk about our bus route first of all fixed route service is the backbone of every train Transit um System including cats and so when we think about locations and frequencies we're looking at a multitude of factors one is equity and need um a second would be demand um and then quite frankly we're looking at our ability to provide the service do we have operators available do we have vehicles available um clearly we would like to increase service across the entire system um but we are always uh looking at where we can make the biggest impact when it comes to equity Equity need demand and then the financial constraints that we have um as we provide the service okay great we have a question in the chat from Hope Wright I noticed that funding for vision zero and sidewalks is expected to drop dramatically why is that hey hope good to hear from you um yes so I think in the 2024 planned Bond Vision zero returns to 4 million uh which is what it's been for the last couple of years before that it was 2 million but in the 2022 Bond we had the opportunity with some uh available funding to have a street lighting specific Vision zero line item that that really grew it um and then sidewalks I believe returns to 20 million in the 2024 Bond um so so yes you're correct there's a couple things that I would say um first is that remember what you're looking at right now is just a plan and so we still have months of conversation before the uh proposed 2024 bond is even presented to city council so there could be adjustments between now and then um or city council could make adjustments after the the proposed Bond um but yes you are correct that in the planned uh 20 24 Bond they do drop uh we have a couple named projects that we've been working on for several years that we're put in our advanc planning program uh back around 2020 and they are now starting to come to Construction in 20124 and so those big named projects really start to to squeeze the the program availability and so uh we always want our programs as high as possible but as we try and balance across the the named Road uh projects which also include sidewalks uh bike facilities planting strips they're full complete Street projects so as we try and balance between them sometimes the programs end up getting squeezed the last thing I'll say there is that we have been successful in securing some grant funding in those areas um through the bipartisan infrastructure law we've been able to secure uh between five and six million I think it is for the Safe Streets for all Grant which is a series of about 20 um pedestrian Crossings and pedestrian projects that we've been able to do so we've been able to take uh quite a chunk out of the vision zero program and shift that to our our Federal grant funding that we've received and just a quick follow up on that question um can you explain what a a name project is and what Advanced planning is sure absolutely so the advanced planning program uh was started several years ago and um we did we did a little bit of a tuneup to our Capital Improvement program where we established the steady state that I mentioned earlier during the presentation um and what the steady state does is is basically before our bond amounts used to sort of vacillate wildly between bonds and at some point we would sort of run out of capacity and have to do a property tax increase in order to get Capital capacity back what the steady state does is it models our our bond capacity longterm and it balances it year-over-year so right now without any additional Revenue we're looking at about 228 million per Bond um for the next 20 years so that's our our steady state and when we did that we started the advanced planning program so that we could start to to better pencil in uh projects with that steady amount of funding that we knew we had coming so that's the advanced planning program we get to about 30% design in the advanced planning program um and we treat the projects in advanced planning as sort of named Council approved projects so uh they show up in the budget book by name and then our team goes and explores them and has several checkpoints along the way where they sort of evaluate um the the efficiency and the scope of the project to make sure that we're really able to achieve what we think we can achieve within uh the funding that we have slotted for it so that's the advanced planning program uh your other question about what is a named project yes good question we complete a lot of projects in programs and those projects don't always show up in the budget book by name and so when we say a named project what we mean is a much larger scale larger scope project um higher dollar amount associated with it and it shows up in our bond schedule by name so right now we have four projects over the next few years we have the Eastway Shamrock intersection we have uh Robinson Church Road we have Bryant Farms Road Phase 2 to and we have the Ashley Freedom teac CG intersection so those are our four named projects that are outside of programs programs are accomplishing other smaller projects uh but these are the are the named projects and every named project is a complete street so um it may it may add Road capacity or it may um retrofit an existing street but it's also going to add uh sidewalk it's going to add pedestrian facilities it's going to add bike facilities as well okay great we have a question about sustainability and how the city is investing in sustainability measures and can you explain exactly what the cat stands for sure great question uh the Strategic energy action plan known as the ca is a plan that Council adopted in 2018 and the main focus is reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and addressing our impact on climate so um we can create a healthy Community for future Generations um there's a couple key areas that we focus on through that plan Transportation so that's everything from electrifying our Fleet and um supporting that with infrastructure to do so as well as purchasing lower carbon emitting vehicles to supporting some of the efforts that are in alignment with the work around shifting away from single occupancy vehicles and supporting um more trips on things like public transit um bikes scooters Etc um the other couple pieces are Workforce Development making sure we have the workforce for this transition to a clean energy economy energy generation so that really focuses on how we invest in solar um we have about 32 solar projects on our sites as a city that are in um some stage whether that's uh already generating clean energy or in design or construction and then finally building so that is a focus on Energy Efficiency uh and um city council has made some pretty bold Investments specifically last budget cycle around creating our first Net Zero police station which will be the first in North Carolina great can you also talk about something about an electric fire station and how would that work sure so um two budget Cycles ago I believe it was city council uh invested some additional funds into an all electric fire station so what that means is that the fire station won't be powered by natural gas and so everything from uh the the way that the building is run to uh having our first all electric fire truck um which is scheduled to arrive before the the fire station or right around when the fire station um will uh will be ready to um the way that folks in the firehouse will cook their food um not on a natural gas stove but all electric stove so the reason why that aligns with the Strategic energy action plan is that um as we are moving away from fossil fuels um the electric grid becomes Greener and cleaner and so all electric creates a lower impact over the life of this building and as the building is is is um and all the things that are happening within the building that means that we're having a lower carbon footprint as a city great and I'll add that there's a section in the FY 24 adopted budget book online that has a CA section if you're interested in reading more about some of these CA initiatives we also have a question about home ownership I'm interested in buying a house but don't know where to start is there something the city can do to help me pursue my path to home home ownership hi absolutely so that's a great question so the city of Charlotte our housing department we partner with the agency called dream key and through dream key we offer Financial uh literacy and Home Ownership that will help prepare you for home ownership in addition to that once you go through the program um if is needed you're eligible to qualify for up to $30,000 in down payment assistance um last year within a quarters of our opportun area we also launch an additional uh $1 million so that provided an additional $50,000 um per resident on top of the $30,000 that they were already eligible for and we're looking to launch another $1 million to our house Charlotte plus program again so again that is dream key partners and I can provide that information over to Tiffany that so that she can put in the link for you okay great um we also had another question about cats about the Bus and Train fairs how are those determined and does the does cats get most of that money from the fairs yes so that's a great question so fairs are really determined to buy cats we have not had a fair increase in many many years since um at least the last six years since sometime before covid um but uh so two things one yes all of the fair revenues do go towards funding cats however our primary source of revenues are the sales taxes so I.E the the fair revenue is not sufficient to fully support operations um generally speaking fairs account for about 10% the fair revenues account for about 10% of the cost of providing the service okay great we're just beyond the halfway point and we don't want to take up too much more of your time but we do want to offer an last little opportunity for you to raise your hand to speak maybe you've been holding on to that question or comment to see if someone else has it um I want to give you an opportunity to put that in the chat or raise your hand and while we do that we have an additional question we've heard from water but just want to give everyone kind of a last call to get their questions into the chat or raise their hand if they'd like to speak question we have about Charlotte water is how does Charlotte water plan for the future growth for for the city of Charlotte uh that work is done by completing Master plans and so those plans actually take into account projections and it's all types of projections it's traffic it's population it's water use it's consumption its Trends across the region and all of the all of those different um inputs uh go into what we call a master plan now uh let me tell you something about water water has to plan for 20 30 40 years um out because of the magnitude of the projects and how we have to serve the region and so that Master planning effort is an Ever evolving effort that is happening all the time and then what we do like uh for example we had this big burst in south end we make adjustments we make Midstream adjustments along the way and we make sure that that coincides with the overall Master planning and so that's really how we plan uh for growth also when we Implement projects um we we we look into the future a certain number of years to determine pipe size and determine expansion of size and size and efforts at our plants so there's a there's a constant team and water that is always looking out there and we have our tentacles not only in the city of Charlotte but in the small town and in the re small towns in the region to kind of see what's happening um in terms of growth uh yesterday I was thinking about you know folks say cranes are an indication um of growth and at one point you know you would only see cranes in in Charlotte Center City we've got cranes everywhere we've got them in pville we've got them in South Charlotte we've got them in East Charlotte and so you know what that means is is that water has to constantly be adjusting and conducting Master planning to ensure that we have the infrastructure to support our community and and really that's that's how we do it we're we're working in the background and we're looking at different indicators to see where people are living where people are moving to where growth and development is happening and then water has to come in there years beforehand to make sure that the infrastructure um is there so uh you know that's a long- winded answer but it it it it does have to do with the master planning um in terms of water supply water is part of a bigger effort to look at the Kataba River Basin we have conversations about 2100 how will water be used in the year 2100 how do we prepare for that how do we preserve this resource such that as the population Grows Right we have the water supply available so there is extensive planning uh that has to occur um in water when we bring forth infrastructure projects um we have a just in time delivery um method we you know you don't want to overbuild and you don't want to underbuild we just one operating at Sweet Spot and we have an excellent team um that has allowed us to do that in this community for many many years great thank you so much uh we got a question from YouTube so hello to all of our YouTube participants and yes the chat is live so thank you so much for the questions and the comments on YouTube as well got a question can you please discuss the legislative contracts for lobbyists and how Charlotte lobbying will impact our fin fin budget impacts on Transit development that's a great question because the panel's looking around to see who is the best person to address your question and so I'm going to suggest it is a team effort and I'm going to reread the question so we have a little bit more time to process it can you please discuss the legislative contracts for lobbyists and how Charlotte is lob how Charlotte lobbying will impact our final budget impacts on Transit development so let me start from a federal level um a lot of the projects that Catz has are massive infrastructure projects they're they're massive cat uh capital projects uh costing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars so from a federal level we engage um our federal electeds um through governmental relations Specialists to try to understand and other Consultants as well to try to understand what dollars are available from the federal government to help us fund um those infrastructure projects that we have on the horizon now um that's sort of half of the equation the other half is with with every Federal dollar received you also need a local match and so we start to have conversations about as we have a local match available how can we really extend those dollars and multiply them using federal grants and we work very closely with Mr Fenton and other governmental relations Specialists to understand the federal landscape and the dollars available for those projects great I think that's a great answer thank you so much another question about cats um has cats considered a fair free service um what would be the barriers to having such of an an opportunity for for Riders yeah you know um Catz has considered that we are not currently Fair free um I would say cats isn't alone in that that is something that many Transit agencies across uh the US have evaluated some have implemented on a pilot basis or limited basis I'd say there are mixed results with um with going Fair free there's pros and cons um so as cats moves forward it's something we're always aware of as um as an as a possibility and something we're looking at the other thing I'd say is in the current or next year's budget in the fy2 budget Catz does intend to do a fair study and what a fair study really does is look at uh the nature of the writers um against the cost or the fairs of the service and it tries to pair um the correct fair with um with for the service taking into account things like Simplicity of fair and Equity of the fairs and so we will be doing that in fy2 okay great one more followup from YouTube so hello again to all of our YouTube Watchers thank you with the loss of the state lobbyist recently will Charlotte addressed the changes that occurred in state law that limited the local match from the state to 250k for Transit projects this one might require a little followup I don't know if anyone has immediate reaction from the panel yeah I I think I would defer to Mr finnon on that and maybe we follow up uh offline in the chat okay sounds good we'll follow up with that question and try to have it available online so thank you so much for that question and keeping us on our toes we appreciate that one of the last questions that we got um I recently tried The Balancing Act tool online and could not figure out what to cut how do y'all prioritize all these Services that's great I love that um yes good question that's the world that we live in um and It's Tricky I think we've we've done I don't know how many submissions of balancing act we've received but hundreds and there are no two alike uh it's like a snowflake so uh it's it's hard and and we're constantly sort of returning to that city council guidance on uh priorities and we're trying to to check ourselves and check our services and make sure that they continue to advance city council priorities um but it's it's hard sort of that's that's the the root of the answer to your question is it's hard and and as times change and as priorities shift we we re-evaluate those services um and do the best we can to sort of get creative and and find ways to accomplish as much as possible okay great and shot thank you for the shout out for a balancing act tool um we'll have a link for that as well if you want to try to put yourselves in our shoes and and try that that would be great um we just have a comment that we received about looking at tax rates assessed um for long-term homeowner residents compared to owners purchasing newly constructed um $600,000 Town Homes next door it just doesn't seem fair we receive that comment we'll um we appreciate your feedback on that and I don't know if um star has any comments on that but I think that's just a comment for us to receive okay valid speaking of Transit is there an update on the one cent for Mobility Sales Tax what is Staff doing to move this forward so clearly uh the on C sales tax is something that is uh necessary for us to move forward a lot of uh primary projects that we have in what we call our 2030 plan um as well as our plan uh for expanding or improving bus service which we refer to as Envision my ride um I think I would defer and say we can we can provide a followup on the status of those conversations okay sounds good thank you so much and then cats so one more back to cats from YouTube thanks again to our YouTube Friends watching um will the city provide enough budget dollars for cats to enhance all bus stop improvements that's a good question um you know the sales tax revenues uh primarily fund well they're are primary revenue source and they fund everything from day-to-day services to infrastructure including bus shelters we do have have a plan to make uh facility improvements and shelter improvements uh will it fund all of them um over time it will um but but again those are you know we have to make hard decisions about where to spend those money that those limited dollars um and it will take time as we as we move forward the other thing I'll say about bus shelters and bus stops in general as new modes develop um there may a shift in how many bus stops there are um and what I mean by that is uh cats as well as other Transit agencies across the country are really looking at a new mode which is microtransit and microtransit um helps provide connectivity in areas where fix route service maybe doesn't work as well that first and last Mile and so as we start to think about rolling out microtransit that may also change where where or how many bus stops we actually need because microtransit literally picks you up from your front door I want to add one additional thing to that uh so even beyond the the literal bus shelters themselves cats and our Department of Transportation C do partner really well to ensure that that Transportation improvements leading to bus stops are are sort of married with um usage and ridership so for example that data helps inform um pedestrian Crossings and sort of where where we place those or where we prioritize sidewalks in the sidewalk program to really help ensure that that we give sort of multimodal options and connectivity for that first Last Mile uh to get to and from bus stops okay great and uh appreciate all the comments that we've received the questions that we've received I appreciate the homework assignments that we've gotten from a couple of our great question actors askers online um so I appreciate everyone taking the time and I'm gonna turn it back over to Cherry Smith to wrap us up so I would like to thank everyone that was able to join us uh via the WebEx as well as those that were able to join via uh YouTube thank you for dropping all those questions in the chat uh if you would like to please V visit our website uh CLT gov. me/ budget uh you'll be able to access the link for our survey as well as the link for The Balancing Act tool we also have all of the dates for our uh public engagement and the budget public hearing so you can keep up to date on what we're doing in the budget office as we move through this fiscal year you can always email us or give us a call at any time we're here to answer your questions uh so thank you very much for joining us today feel free to join future sessions if you come up with other questions and we hope you have a great rest of your day thanks [Music]