The Carrboro Town Council will hold a public hearing and vote on the town’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget on Tuesday, June 18. During their most recent meeting on June 4, Finance Director Bret Greene highlighted the recommended budget’s key points.
The total recommended budget includes $68.3 million across all funds, a 15.8% decrease compared to last year. Greene said this decrease is primarily due to the town’s anticipated completion of the 203 Project, a civic building under construction at 203 South Greensboro Street. Despite the budget decrease, the town’s revenue increased 5.7% over last year due to property tax- and sales tax revenue increases, four percent of which Greene said the town already realized.
Greene also said the budget includes a 10% operating cost increase over last year — which includes raises for town employees, but also a broader adjustment to the current financial landscape.
“It’s a real concern,” he said. “It’s not only inflation. It’s not only a lack of contractors. It’s perceived and potential lack of investment within the town and within different channels and programming that, if further avoided, could be exponentially more expensive.”
“In analyzing each departmental budget,” continued Greene, “there were certain items within each department that were on the brink of coming to that exponential increase in cost had they not been addressed in the next fiscal year or two. So, that’s a consideration for [the] 10% operating expense increase, in addition to, as we priorly stated, an investment in town staff, investment in recruitment, investment in the land use ordinance, investment in the staffing study, investment in the compensation study – one time occurrences that are bleeding into the operating expense for the general fund.”
A breakdown of the recommended budget’s priorities. It includes funding for general government expenses ($8.1 million), public safety ($7.9 million), public works ($4.7 million), non-departmental expenses ($3.3 million), transportation ($2.4 million), recreation/parks/cultural expenses ($2.3 million), planning ($2.2 million), and debt services ($1.7 million).
When speaking with 97.9 The Hill after the June 4 meeting, Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee described the details of the presentation as “nothing new” for the council, but that she and her colleagues were pleased to see all the elements together.
“We’d had a couple of budget work sessions already with Bret,” said Foushee. “already run through most of that, so it was just presenting what was already knew.”
Foushee also highlighted this proposal’s plan to include funding to help the town with its upcoming land use management ordinance re-write and its partnerships with nonprofits.
The recommended budget can be found on the town’s website here, and physical copies are located at Town Hall, Century Center, Carrboro Public Works Department, both town fire stations, and Carr Mill mall.
To watch a full video recording of the meeting, click here.
Photos via the Town of Carrboro
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