Orange and Chatham counties recently began their budget planning process for the next fiscal year. County commissioners will take the next several weeks to hear public input and finalize the budgets.

Chairperson of the Chatham County Commissioners Karen Howard said Chatham County is doing exceedingly well, which is going to affect the county’s budget. 

“Chatham has seen real growth,” Howard said. “That has positioned us well to meet some of the demands that are coming towards us.”

The proposed operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-23 in Chatham County is $164.9 million. This would keep the property tax at 66.5 cents per $100. 

Howard said the budget will focus on expansion to permitting and planning areas to meet the growing demand, as well as the sheriff’s office and the county manager’s office. 

She said an additional effect of the county’s high tax revenues is more focus can be put into ongoing areas of need. Howard cited education, agriculture and preservation, parks and recreation and affordable housing as just a few.

“There’s also the very positive reality that Chatham County is doing really well fiscally,” Howard said. “[We] are going to be poised to meet those really significant growth needs as we venture into 2023 and 2024.”

Meanwhile, Orange County’s proposed $312.3 million operating budget represents a $24.1 million increase from the previous fiscal year. This budget would raise the property tax by 1.25 cents to 83.12 cents per $100. 

$93.6 million of the proposed operating budget would be allocated to the county’s two school districts: Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Renée Price said the county heard from the districts at a joint meeting last week. She said they covered topics like school safety and wellbeing of students.

“Those discussions will help inform what we decide within the budget,” Price said. “There was very little talk and In terms of dollars, for specific items at that meeting, but we wanted to find out what is really going on. Most of it was really about, you know, kind of the human aspect of our schools as opposed to, you know, bricks and mortar and what the curriculum will hold.”

Price said, though, the budget is far from being finalized. The county will be hearing from different departments over the next few weeks with a budget work session scheduled for May 19.

“We also will have hearings as well, people can come to public hearings,” Price said. “The first one will be next week on May 10, at 7 p.m., and the second one will be June 2 at 7 p.m. We want to hear from people.”

Orange and Chatham County both plan to hold a vote to adopt the budget for 2022-23 by June 21 with the new fiscal year beginning July 1.

To learn more about the Orange County proposed budget, click here. To learn more about the Chatham County proposed budget, click here.

 


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