By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
As federal, state and local budgets continue to tighten, the Orange County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday heard a presentation of the county’s proposed 2012-13 budget, which includes a $300,000 increase from the 2011-12 budget and no tax increases.
County Manager Frank Clifton recommended a budget of $178.5 million, a small increase from the $178.2 million that was originally set for 2011-12. However, the 2011-12 budget was amended, putting next year’s budget proposal actually $4.8 million below the current year’s budget.
“The budget this year is like the budget last year.†Clifton told the commissioners.
“Any new growth or increase in funding that you see is very limited.â€
Clifton recommended holding the property-tax rate at last year’s level of 85.8 cents per $100 of property valuation and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro special district-tax rate at 18.84 cents per $100 of valuation.
Included in the 2012-13 budget is a 3 percent cost-of-living raise for county employees, as well as increased funding for the rising cost of health insurance.
The new budget also reflects an increase in sales-tax revenue of 3 percent, or $15.7 million, which is now the county’s second-largest revenue source. However, the county’s sales-tax revenues are still down more than 30 percent since the 2007-08 fiscal year.
While the county was able to find money to address some needed improvements in services, such as six additional patrol vehicles for the sheriff and an additional EMS ambulance plus staff, the county was unable to fully fund the budget increases asked for by its two school districts.
Since both the Orange County Schools and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools districts’ budgets have been slashed at the state level, the two districts requested additional money from the county.
Currently, 48.2 percent of the county’s 2012-13 budget is appropriated to the two school districts, making it the largest expenditure of the general fund, with the second-largest being human services, Clarence Grier, director of the county’s financial-services department, told the commissioners.
Members of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education were at the meeting to listen closely to what the commissioners had to say about the allocation to the schools.
“Additional revenues would be needed to fully fund their request,†Grier told commissioners as he showed them what revenues could be generated for the schools by an increase in the property tax.
“I have confidence that within the existing budget, without raising taxes, we can find enough money to devote another cent toward operating monies to the two school systems,†Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.
“I will be working to try and find those monies in our existing budget,†Jacobs added.
There will be two public hearings on the proposed budget, on May 17 and May 22 at 7 p.m., and the commissioners will formally adopt the budget on June 19.