Orange County Commissioners are holding a public hearing on next year’s budget Thursday, May 28, at 7 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center — and they’re asking for your feedback as they draw closer to making a difficult final decision.
County leaders are facing competing demands from residents and hard tradeoffs to make as they try to support necessary services — with reduced state and federal funding — all without overburdening local taxpayers.
“While we are hearing from residents who want us to continue investing in those things that we have come to love about Orange County, we are also hearing from residents who are struggling with rising costs and who feel they simply cannot afford higher taxes,” said County Commissioner Phyllis Portie-Ascott at a recent meeting.
Watch the board’s May 21 meeting, which also included a public budget hearing.
County manager Travis Myren has proposed a $325 million budget that includes a 3.75-cent increase in property taxes. Most of that tax increase is unavoidable at this point: it’s to cover capital projects that voters already approved in previous years.
Read Myren’s full budget proposal here.
To minimize the tax hike, Myren’s budget also makes significant cuts — and several of those have been drawing major pushback.
Orange County Manager Travis Myren addresses a May 21 meeting of county commissioners. (Screencap from meeting video.)
The line item that’s drawn the most attention is a proposal to zero out county-level funding for the Chapel Hill Public Library over the next two years, now that a southern branch of the Orange County library system is open in Carrboro. That would save the county about $600,000 a year, but it would likely also force the Chapel Hill library to reduce services, staff, or operating hours – and supporters of the library have pointed out that attendance there remains as high as ever, even with the Carrboro branch now open down the road.
The nonprofit Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library has led a coordinated effort to lobby county commissioners to restore that funding, and County Commissioners Amy Fowler and Jamezetta Bedford have introduced an amendment to do just that.
“In this current environment, at the state and federal level, of hamstringing critical thinking and exposure to books, I feel it’s important to support and strengthen our libraries and meeting spaces,” said Fowler while announcing her amendment.
But while the library issue is sparking lots of discussion, an even larger line item relates to Orange County’s two school districts. Myren’s budget proposal includes a 2.5 percent funding increase for Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools — but that’s more than $2 million below the 4 percent increase the districts requested, and school leaders are urging county commissioners to make up that difference – and urging local residents to join the call.
“Go and let our county commissioners know we need additional funding for public schools — because if they don’t fund the continuation budget, we’re not only facing school closures, we’re going to be facing another RIF (reduction in force),” said East Chapel Hill High School teacher Brian Link at a recent school board meeting. “So please, please, please take action.”
Compounding those demands are significant federal funding cuts and a state government that’s gone without a budget for an entire year — both of which have forced local governments to shoulder more of the cost of public services, many of which are legally required.
“Counties are mandated to provide certain services by state law, (including) administering Medicaid, SNAP programs, housing programs, and public education,” said county commissioner Marilyn Carter. “Yet the federal government is passing unfunded mandates our way, and we know the state has underfunded our schools for years. These pressures create genuine tradeoffs.”
Looming over all of this year’s budget discussions is the possibility of a new state constitutional amendment that would restrict the ability of local governments to raise property taxes in the future, if voters approve it on this year’s November ballot. Town board members in both Hillsborough and Carrboro have cited that as a reason to consider a higher tax increase this year, as a hedge against possible future restrictions.
Speaking at last week’s meeting, county manager Myren did not go that far — but he did say it’s an additional factor for county commissioners to keep in mind.
“The sky isn’t falling at this point,” he said last week, “but still any constraints may make it more difficult for the county to raise revenue for any of its priorities, not to mention the increasing costs of state mandates.”
Click here to read a summary of Myren’s budget proposal.
But all of those demands are adding pressure to a property tax rate that’s already high, and a proposed tax increase that would already add $150 to an average homeowner’s annual bill. (Myren said the school districts’ request alone would increase the tax rate by an additional half cent.) Factoring in expected increases in town taxes, fire district taxes, and utility fees, county commissioner Earl McKee warned that some residents could get priced out of Orange County by taxes alone.
“It’s starting to accumulate to the point that a lot of our people are having a very difficult time paying their taxes, even to the point of some of our folks being forced out of the county,” McKee said last week. “I’m hesitant to say this, but I’m afraid we’re going to start seeing more and more tax foreclosures.”
All Orange County residents are encouraged to attend tonight’s meeting at 7 and weigh in with their thoughts. While none of those questions are fully answered today, County Commissioners are slated to approve a preliminary budget in just one week, and sign off on a final budget on June 16.
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