Chapel Hill Manager Recommending $113 Million Budget, 1.6 Cent Property Tax Increase

The budget that Chapel Hill town manager Maurice Jones is proposing totals more than $113 million and includes a 1.6 cent property tax increase.

Jones is set to present his recommended budget to the Chapel Hill Town Council on Wednesday night, starting the process for the town to finalize its budget before the council breaks for summer and the new fiscal year begins. This is the first time Jones has led the town through the budget process after he took over in the role last fall following the retirement of Roger Stancil.

Jones wrote in an email to the council that his recommended budget “recognizes Council’s most important goals and makes investments in strategies to achieve those goals.”

Jones’ $113 million recommendation represents a 3.7 percent increase from last year.

“In recent years, the cost of providing Town services has outpaced Town revenue trends,” Jones wrote.

One cent of the proposed property tax increase in the recommended budget is dedicated to funding the $10 million affordable housing bond that Chapel Hill voters overwhelmingly approved last fall. The additional .6 cents would help pay for debt service on other projects, Jones wrote.

Jones highlighted areas that he said would help work toward council goals, including $50,000 to support a climate action plan, $315,000 for coal ash remediation efforts at the site of the current police station and $100,000 for urban design services.

The recommended budget includes a 3 percent pay increase for town employees and $200,000 to increase pay for police officers.

“During the past few years,” Jones wrote, “the Police Department has had an increasingly difficult time recruiting and retaining Police Officers. One contributing factor is that we have fallen behind the market in our pay for sworn officers. We are at a critical time when action is needed.”

Transit continues to be the biggest draw of the Chapel Hill budget to, along with local contributions from UNC and the Town of Carrboro and federal funds, maintain the fare-free transit system.

The recommended budget also includes a $2.82 increase in the stormwater management fee to fund the remaining balance from 2015 stormwater bonds approved by voters.

The recommended budget will be presented to the Chapel Hill Town Council at Wednesday’s meeting, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Chapel Hill Town Hall.

You can view the proposed budget here.

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