June 21, 2011; Source: WRAL.com | The other day the NPQ Newswire covered a United Way in Charlotte, N.C., that invaded its reserves to level fund nonprofits providing safety net services to the local community. Now we see the city of Raleigh, N.C., doing the same thing.

Not wanting to raise property taxes, the City Council made personnel cuts where there were vacant positions, cut pension payments and decided to forego permanent raises for city workers but they did not want to abandon local arts groups and nonprofits so they dipped into their reserve funds to fund those groups. The reserve fund was established shortly after the recession started from money for infrastructure projects.

We congratulate the nonprofits of that area for so obviously proving their worth to local government.—Ruth McCambridge