It’s that time of year when local boards start talking budgets, and constituents wonder if tax increases are on the way.

That was the subject of one WCHL forum on Thursday that included members of Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro governments.

Chapel Hill Town Council Member George Cianciolo identified public safety as a high funding priority – building a new police station, and several new fire stations. Forty-two buses need to be replaced.

“Those are our needs,” said Cianciolo. “The wants are a much longer list.”

Carrboro Alderperson Damon Seils said the partnership with Chapel Hill Transit and capital needs for that system will be a priority in the near future.

“A big priority in the Town of Carrboro right now is making sure that we stay on track with providing a housing wage for town employees,” said Seils. “We started with that this fiscal year, and we’ll continue to complete that project in the next two fiscal years.”

According to Seils, a “housing wage” is around $15 per hour, whereas the “living wage” paid by Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro is just under $12 per hour. In North Carolina, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

Orange County Commissioner Mia Burroughs said the county budget will likely focus on providing services that have been cut by the General Assembly, such a child care –
“a whole range of human services that folks need to get out the door and get the jobs that we want them to have, without leaving their children in an unsafe place.”

The other big issue will be a bond in November 2016 to upgrade old school buildings in both local school districts.

Increasing capacity, she said, will put off the need for building new schools down the road.

As for the prospect of a property tax increase, Seils said that Carrboro residents won’t see one this time, for the seventh year in a row.

Cianciolo noted that, since 2009, the Town of Chapel Hill has kept tax increases to 6.1 percent versus 8.9 percent for inflation.

“This year, what we’re looking at is going out to the public with, probably, a $40 million bond issue,” said Cianciolo. “But that would not require an increase in taxes.

“And we’re also proposing to do $50 million in incremental debt financing that would address the issues of our public safety requirements, and several others. And that won’t require a tax increase.”

Cianciolo said that good handling of past debt makes increasing taxes unnecessary for taking on new debt, at least for now.

However, he also noted that Chapel Hill’s long-range capital improvement needs come to about $200 million. So a tax increase, somewhere down the line, is not inconceivable. And it’s not clear whether bond money would be spent on a new solid waste transfer station, or what that would look like.

“Part of that is we’re looking for some additional information from our colleagues in Carrboro and Hillsborough and the county, where they would be interested in participating,” said Cianciolo. “We don’t want to build a transfer station so small that they can’t participate.

“On the other hand, we don’t want to build one that’s too big – that if they choose not to participate, that we’re carrying the burden ourselves.”

Burroughs said it’s too early to make promises about tax rates on behalf of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, which is just starting its budget process.

“The commission will see the schools’ budgets next week, for the first time,” said Burroughs. “And then the [county] manager will make a budget recommendation May 14th, and then we’ll have a discussion about that May 19th. So there are still a whole lot of unknowns out there.”

One of those unknowns is whether a proposed $125 million bond referendum for school repairs will force a county tax increase.