The Hillsborough Board of Commissioners met on Monday, its last meeting before summer break, to officially adopt the 2020 to 2021 fiscal budget and pass several resolutions.
The board will take off all of July and return to normal operations the second week of August.
97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck spoke with Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver about the new town budget and other points of interest discussed at the meeting.
According to Weaver, even before the onslaught of the pandemic, this was going to be a challenging budget year for the town. As a smaller jurisdiction, Weaver said the Town of Hillsborough needs to be a little more careful with its spending in comparison to its larger neighbors.
“A lot of things cost the same for Hillsborough as they do for Carrboro or Chapel Hill but we have a smaller tax base to pay for them, so it was already going to be a tight year,” Weaver said.
When comparing these towns, Hillsborough’s budget for this fiscal year is around $22 million dollars whereas Carrboro has a recommended budget just over $70 million dollars and Chapel Hill has a budget of around $111 million dollars.
Weaver said the main thing people need to know is that the town’s essential services will continue to remain funded, despite financial concern. The board adopted the town’s budget for the 2020 to 2021 fiscal year with no increases to the property tax rate, stormwater fees, or water and sewer rates.
Overall, Weaver said the town has set a conservative budget in order to allow for some wiggle room as it continues to experience the effects of the pandemic.
“Let’s plan for a scenario because there’s so much we don’t know, that is almost a pessimistic outlook, and then if it turns out better it is much easier to add things back in.” Weaver said.
In addition to approving this year’s budget, the board approved a resolution designating Juneteenth as an official town holiday. This resolution also pushes state and federal legislators to sponsor an official state and federal observance of the day.
“You know there’s quite a movement to get Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday and it seems like a move that we were all glad to do to make this a town holiday,” Weaver said. “So town offices will be closed every June 19 starting next year.”
Juneteenth will be added to the nine holidays the town already observes with paid time off for employees.
Another item approved before the board’s summer break was a new voting allowance. To support the right to vote and to make voting easier, Weaver said Hillsborough town employees are now allowed to request paid time off to vote.
“Voting is really important and we want our employees to feel like they have every opportunity and encouragement to do so,” Weaver said. “We’re directing staff to find the language they need to just update personnel policy to allow up to two hours of paid time to vote during the primary and the general election.”
Weaver said not all of the town’s employees live in Hillsborough so this will allow everyone to have an adequate amount of time to travel to their polling place.
For more information on Hillsborough’s budget and other town news, click here.
To listen to more of Aaron Keck’s interview with Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver, head on over to the Conversations with the Mayors Podcast.
Photo via Visit Hillsborough NC.
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