Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory Speaks to the Subcontractors

Pat McCrory address the ASAC and PHCC

Former Charlotte Mayor, Pat McCrory spoke to a joint meeting of the American Subcontractors Association of the Carolinas Charlotte Chapter and the Charlotte and Gastonia chapters of the Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors Association. The meeting was held on Tuesday August 17th at Byron’s Southend. Over 80 members and guests were in attendance.


The mayor’s topic was change and resurgence in Charlotte. There are many things that encourage him about the future of Charlotte and the likelihood that Charlotte will experience a resurgence ahead of the country in general. Some of the reasons are as follows:

The banks in Charlotte are hiring. Even though Charlotte lost the headquarters of Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Bank of America are increasing jobs in Charlotte due to the lower cost of living as compared to New York and San Francisco.

The availability of educated and trained employees and Charlotte’s infrastructure are fueling the opening of new businesses and relocations to Charlotte.

Charlotte’s airport with over 500 direct flights daily to locations coast-to-coast make Charlotte desirable for corporate and division offices.

Charlotte’s dynamic city center, South End district and the light rail to connect them makes Charlotte attractive to young urban dwellers. Getting people to transfer to Charlotte is generally not a problem

The cloud on the horizon is government spending and taxes at the state and local levels. Charlotte and North Carolina are no longer low tax areas. Also, the number of government employees has continued to increase. Even though Charlotte has curbed the rate of wage increases and now makes city employees participate in the cost of healthcare, this is not true at the county and state levels which have continued to give 7-8 percent increases and pay 100% of healthcare costs. These generous benefits are far more than are available in the private sector and since government employees are able to retire after 30 years at 80% of pay, this will be unsustainable in the near future as these increases and benefits continue to grow at twice the rate of the private sector.

Mr. McCrory issued a call to arms for business men and entrepreneurs, who typically work years at low salaries and benefits to get their businesses going, to show up at city and county budget meetings to make their voices heard. The city fathers hear a drumbeat every day from city and county workers about how hard they work and how little they are paid. Most on the city council and county boards have never had to meet a payroll and have no idea how hard the private sector has to work to pay for the government salaries and spending.

Mr. McCrory concluded to a standing ovation.