The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously passed its budget for the upcoming fiscal year during its Wednesday night meeting.
Coming after weeks of deliberation and public comment, the decision sets the Town of Chapel Hill’s operating budget as $116.8 million for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. It represents a slight increase in the budget compared to last fiscal year’s, which was more than $111 million.
During the meeting, town staff said the budget will restore several services put on hold during the previous fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty surrounding how it would affect the town’s finances. About 61 percent of the budget, or more than $71 million, will be dedicated to day-to-day operations. The second largest portion of the budget is transit operations at 23 percent, which is more than $26 million.
One of the changes the town council made compared to the recommended budget from Town Manager Maurice Jones was a two-cent property tax rate increase instead of a three-cent increase. Chapel Hill’s tax rate per $100 in assessed property value is now 51.4 cents.
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger spoke with 97.9 The Hill following the budget’s approval.
“We were trying to balance the [property] re-evaluation, the town needs, the tax rate, all those kinds of things,” said Hemminger, when discussing elected officials’ goals with this year’s budget. “We knew we wanted to give our employees a pay raise. We wanted to focus on our climate action plan and social justice and some infrastructure goals.”
Hemminger said the town council supported a property tax rate increase in order to support several needs of the local government, with the officials decreasing from the recommended three-cent increase to less the impact on residents.
“[With] COVID,” the Chapel Hill mayor said, “it’s just been a really difficult year for a lot of people. But at the end of the day, we do have services we want to make sure that we take care of.”
Additional funding for the town government will be on its way soon. As part of the federal government’s American Rescue Plan responding to the coronavirus pandemic, states and local governments will be allocated money. The funding will be available for one-time programs and projects, with the Chapel Hill elected officials set to create uses for the town’s allocations following a summer break.
“We will be having discussions and inviting the public to speak on that,” said Hemminger. “We’ll start with some economic incentives and business grants, things like that this summer, but just at a small amount. And then [we will] come back in the fall and discuss what to do with the larger amounts.”
Another local government is expected to pass their operating budgets in the next week. The Orange County Board of Commissioners will vote whether to approve or reject its spending plan on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
To learn more about the Town of Chapel Hill’s budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, visit the local government’s website.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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