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Residents weigh in at subdued county budget meet

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Staff

by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Several county residents spoke against the proposed tax increase while others spoke in favor of funding programs and services at an unusually short public hearing on the proposed county budget Tuesday night.

“I’m a little disappointed,” said Ben Lloyd, a longtime county resident and former county commissioner. “Last year there was so much jumping up and down and hollering.”

School and county officials changed the budget process this year after hundreds of people spoke at public hearings last year in favor of increasing school funding. Commissioners increased school funding in the final budget, but both officials and residents expressed concern regarding the budget process.

School officials presented their projected funding needs to the board in the fall, rather than this spring, so that commissioners would have that information when setting their budget goals.

Orange County Manager Laura Blackmon last week recommended an 8.8-cent increase on the ad valorem tax rate in her proposed 2008-09 fiscal year county budget.

The increase would raise the ad valorem tax rate to $1.038 per $100 of property valuation, representing a 9 percent increase over the current 95-cent rate. The recommended $188.3 million budget is an 8.4 percent increase over last year’s approved budget.

Blackmon also recommended increasing the Chapel Hill-Carrboro special district tax by 2.65 cents, to 23 cents per $100 of property valuation.

Under the proposed budget, nearly half of the general fund budget would fund the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County school districts. Blackmon’s recommendation funds 98.5 percent of the two school districts’ requested budgets.

Several county residents said the proposed tax increases were too high, especially for residents on fixed incomes.

“Please do not raise our taxes as much as it has been suggested. There’s no way we can pay it,” said Betsy Tilley, a county resident for 69 years. “People are leaving Orange County now … because they can’t afford to live here.”

Tilley’s husband, Wayne Tilley, echoed her concerns.

“We just cannot afford to keep funding everything everybody thinks we need or want,” he said. “Consider people like myself that have fixed income and would like to live in Orange County, but we’re feeling the pinch, and I don’t see any relief in sight.”

Lloyd criticized the commissioners for the county’s lack of economic development.

“You have had the door closed to economic growth for 30 years that would have provided jobs for Orange County and dollars for Orange County’s needs,” he said.

According to Blackmon, homeowners pay about 70 percent of the county’s general fund revenue.

Several residents spoke in favor of fully funding a volunteer coordinator position for the county’s Certified Emergency Response Team, while a few others mentioned the schools.
Karl Knapp urged the commissioners not to decrease the manager’s proposed allocation for the schools.

“It is providing a reasonable funding increase for education in our county,” he said. “I would be more thrilled about this if the increase were not funded by a fairly large tax increase … [but] let us remember that the increase is not in there for extravagant spending.”

Commissioners have indicated they think the proposed tax increase is too high. Blackmon said she is looking at different programs and services to cut in order to minimize the tax increase and will provide options to the Board of County Commissioners on June 5.
The board will hold a second public hearing on the proposed budget tonight (Thursday) at 7:30 at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road. The board is scheduled to approve the budget on June 24.

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