Chapel Hill Town Manager Chris Blue presented the town’s recommended budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-2025 to the Chapel Hill Town Council during the council’s May 1 meeting. The total recommended budget was nearly $156 million, a four percent increase from last year’s budget. The proposal recommends a property tax rate increase of two cents per $100, totaling a 0.592% property tax rate. The proposal also includes a six percent cost of living raise for Town of Chapel Hill employees.
More than $89 million of the recommended budget comes from general fund revenues. The graphic below shows how much each revenue source will contribute to the budget’s general fund revenue based on the proposal.
$89 million of the recommended budget for FY25 comes from general fund revenues. This graphic shows a breakdown of this year’s revenue sources compared to the previous two years’ budgets.
The budget also includes more than $36 million from the town’s transit fund, $5.5 million from the town’s parking fund, nearly $2.7 million from the public housing fund, and $3.3 million from the stormwater fund.
Blue said the budget proposal addresses priorities in the 5-year budget strategy and Complete Community Framework that the council established in 2020. Blue highlighted those priorities, including recruiting and retaining employees providing core services to residents, stewardship of facilities, fleet, and infrastructure, and continuing the town’s commitment to affordable housing.
“First, our people are our number one priority,” said Blue. “Our excellent team members are the way things get done in this community from our core services, to our big projects, to advancing your goals. With this budget, we continue to show that we value all of the folks who make this organization run every day.”
Under the proposal, Town staff salaries would receive a six percent “market cost of living adjustment,” including wage increases, increase in retirement funding, and funding for three new positions.
$500,000 would be allocated for operations involving solid waste, aquatic pool services, technology cost increases, and event programming costs. This funding would also be used for training employees, the Planning Ambassador program, and a GARE survey. Another $500,000 sum would be set for vehicle replacements across several departments. $500,000 would also be allocated to service streets and infrastructure projects, including resurfacing nearly one mile of residential streets.
Town Manager Blue said the town staff shares the council’s commitment to affordable housing projects. He said the budget allocates close to $3 million for affordable housing projects from the general fund.
“We are proud to say that this budget includes an amount equal to nearly three pennies [per $100 evaluation] for affordable housing initiatives,” said Blue. “We will continue to support our community partners as well as develop and preserve affordable housing throughout our town.”
Blue clarified the $2.9 million does not include an additional $2.7 million which the public housing enterprise fund contributes to the budget.
Council Member Amy Ryan said she appreciated the staff’s communications on the budget with the council over the past several months compared to previous years when the council was not informed of budget considerations until it was presented the formal budget in May. Ryan also said while she supports the tax increase, the staff should consider ways to mitigate costs for residents in future years.
“I’m just concerned about cumulative impacts on this community, general affordability, and the ability of people to be here,” said Ryan. “There’s not an easy answer to that, but I want to make sure as we move forward, as we keep going with our five-year budgeting, we really understand what sustainability means for where we’re trying to get to and how we can affordably be there.”
Council Member Camille Berry said while she believed funding requests could have been larger for certain budget areas, she had a generally positive view of the proposal.
“This budget, for me, says we believe in ourselves, we have hope for tomorrow, we are not going to fix it all, but we are confident,” said Berry.
Mayor Jessica Anderson concluded the budget discussion by thanking the town staff for their work on the budget and collaboration with the town council.
“One thing that’s really important to me in all the work that we’re doing,” said Anderson, “is to make sure that all the pieces fit together to add up to Complete Community and our strategy there. Also right now, we do have a once in a lifetime opportunity to leverage federal money to make investments for our town and to help individuals, not-for-profits, and businesses do the same. I just want to make sure we’re doing everything that we can to make sure we’re getting all the federal money.”
“I also think,” the mayor added, “that a third party review of our [East Rosemary Street] parking deck is a really good idea. I’d love to claw some money back any way we could if possible. We know that our staff is excellent. That never crosses my mind. I think this it’s really about making sure that we’re figuring out every single way that we can make sure that things go as smoothly in the future as possible.”
The council had initially scheduled a May 8 meeting budget work session, but the mayor indicated that due to the lack of council comment on the budget, that would likely be canceled. The Chapel Hill Town Council will have a budget public forum on May 15, and tentatively scheduled budget work sessions on May 22 and 29 if needed.
The council will vote to adopt the FY25 budget on June 5. To read the proposed budget click here.
To watch a full video recording of the May 1 meeting, click here.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill
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