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CHARLOTTE – The Queen City’s public television station, WTVI, will more than likely see major cuts in funding as the county faces an $80-million budget shortfall.

Departments across Mecklenburg County are having to slash expenses, and County Manager Harry Jones proposed cutting funding for WTVI’s new government channel called Public Square.

Commissioners unanimously approved the Public Square concept and funding for it back in September 2008, but the change in economic status for the county is forcing drastic moves.

“It's not an environment where you enjoy doing it, but I have to be accountable to the board of county commissioners and present them a balanced budget,” said Jones, who spoke about the budget cuts with county residents Tuesday. “In doing so, I knew that I had an $80-million shortfall I had to make up.”

Jones suggests cutting the funding for Public Square by $285,000, which is 9.75 percent. That’s a little more than the average county agencies are cutting at 9.2 percent.

“We are taking our fair share of the community burden,” said Elsie Garner, president and CEO of WTVI. “It's only fair and we understand that as a community partner.”

Under the suggested cut, WTVI would still receive about $2.7 million for the project. However, Jones also suggests phasing out funding for the new channel all together.

“It's an untested program, it's a new program and we said that in this economy and given this dire straits of the county budget, why go forward with a new proposal given all the other competing demands that we've got?” said the county manager.

Jones still has $38-40 million to cut to cover the $80-million deficit. He said he plans to announce his proposed budget cuts for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system and Central Piedmont Community College later this week.