The Town of Chapel Hill is proceeding into the new fiscal year with a newly adopted $103 million budget.

The budget is balanced and requires no tax increase – the third consecutive year without such an increase.

The Town Council unanimously approved of the final proposal on Monday night.

Town Manager Roger Stancil told the council this budget reflected the priorities of the council and citizens of Chapel Hill by supporting areas including affordable housing.

“This budget continues the penny for affordable housing,” Stancil said, “and adds $28,000 per year to the contract for the community land trust.”

Stancil said affordable housing was an important piece of the puzzle, but added it was just one of the priorities considered when crafting the budget.

“Other examples that are reflected in the budget are additional funding for human service agencies,” Stancil said. “While we made it through the recession without reducing that funding, it was time – after a long time – to think about how you might fund other human service agencies.”

The initial recommended budget was brought to the council in early May. Since then, there have been two budget work sessions and a public hearing. Stancil said changes were made to the proposal to implement desires of the community.

“The funding for the Visitor’s Bureau was increased by $25,000,” Stancil said, “in part, to try to respond to the impact of HB2 on tourism in North Carolina and Chapel Hill in particular.”

Stancil also pointed to funding to expand Launch Chapel Hill – the business incubator collaboration between UNC, Chapel Hill and Orange County – and restoring three days of swimming hours as areas that were adjusted after public input.

Every member of the Town Council that spoke seemed pleased with the overall budget in terms that it did not require a tax increase, including Mayor Pam Hemminger.

“[We] appreciate a budget that came forward without the tax increase this year as we had promoted the bonds for the vote saying that we wouldn’t need a tax increase for bonds,” Hemminger said referencing the $40 million in bonds approved by Chapel Hill voters in the fall.

The budget also includes a pay raise for town employees, Stancil said, which is broken into a two percent increase in July and another 1.5 percent increase in January.

“That split is in anticipation of the future implementation of a pay for performance or pay for value added [model].”

Council member Nancy Oates said she wanted to address pay raises for town employees going forward in hopes of giving those at the lower end of the pay scale larger raises rather than an across-the-board percentage jump.

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