CHAPEL HILL-Orange County Commissioners signaled on Thursday that they will hold the line on property taxes, though the CHCCS special district tax will go up.

The board won’t formally adopt the $187 million dollar budget until next week, but commissioners made it clear they want to keep the countywide property tax rate unchanged while still spending more money on public schools.

Looking ahead, some said that won’t be sustainable in the future.

“We have to keep in mind that this might be the last year that we’re going to go without raising taxes,” said Commissioner Penny Rich. “I’m not the kind of person who loves to raise taxes, but there’s a certain level of services that we expect in Orange County, and we can’t go year after year, especially with the school systems, and not raise taxes.”

The ad valorem tax rate will stay at 85.8 cents per $100 of assessed value for the fifth year in a row.

Last month, parents, teachers and administrators from both the Orange County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools districts came out in droves to beg the board for more money to cover anticipated cuts at the state level.

In response, county commissioners dug into reserve funds to find $1.6 million in extra school funding, raising the per pupil allocation by $81 dollars for both school districts and generating approximately $1.6 million for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and $650,000 for Orange County Schools.

But that money is still not enough to open Chapel Hill’s new Northside Elementary. Commissioners agreed to raise the Chapel Hill-Carrboro special district tax by two cents to generate approximately $2 million for the new school. The new rate will be 20.84 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Commissioners also allocated $49,000 in additional funding for a host of nonprofit organizations, and set aside a quarter of a million for something they dubbed the Social Justice Fund, a reserve account to help lessen the sting of state cuts to social programs.

“In a way it’s a commitment that this is something we consider important,” said Board Chair Barry Jacobs. “I think we all agree there are depredations being done to the social safety net. We want to try to address them and we know can’t address them all.”

The board will vote to formally adopt the budget for Fiscal Year 2013-2014 at a meeting on Tuesday, June 18.

Related Stories
‹
On School Funding, BOCC Faces Tough Choices
The BOCC faces a number of difficult decisions when it comes to school funding.
BoCC Eyes Older Schools For Bond Referendum
Commissioners could consider a bond referendum to finance repairs on aging schools, but they want to be sure it will delay the need for new buildings.
Parents Lobby BoCC For School Funding
CHAPEL HILL- For the second time in two weeks, parents and teachers raised their voices to ask Orange County Commissioners to raise more money for schools. Nearly a hundred residents turned out for Thursday’s public hearing on next year’s  county budget and the vast majority called for a tax increase to fund both school systems. […]
OC Parents Plead For School Funding: "I'll Pay More"
HILLSBOROUGH- More than a hundred parents, teachers and children squeezed into Thursday’s public hearing on the county budget, while others spilled out into the hallway at the Department of Social Services, waiting for their chance to beg the board of commissioners to spend more on schools. “We’re not asking you for more advantages for our […]
'We Must Invest in Our Children': OC Commissioners Hear School Budget Requests
This year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) and Orange County Schools (OCS) requested millions more in school funding to better support the growing needs of students in the county.
Governor Rolls Out School Safety Funding Pitch at Cedar Ridge High School
Governor Roy Cooper was shuffling through the hallways and offices of Cedar Ridge High School on Thursday, meeting with school support personnel – counselors, the school nurse. Cooper said these were vital roles for public education in North Carolina. “Often, people who could make more money doing something else,” Cooper said, “decide they want to […]
Orange County Commissioners to Adopt Recommended Budget for New Fiscal Year
The Orange County Board of Commissioners will convene this evening to vote on spending nearly $220 million over the course of the next fiscal year. That figure represents the estimated expenditures in a proposed budget recommended by Orange County Manager Bonnie Hammersley for board member approval. Those expenditures were briefed to board members last week […]
OC Approves 2-Cent Property Tax Hike
Orange County Commissioners on Tuesday approved the first property tax rate increase in five years.
Schools, County In Limbo Awaiting NCGA Budget
School and County officials are in limbo awaiting the final state budget, but they say it’s likely to hit local schools hard.
School and County Leaders Consider $100M Bond Referendum
School and county leaders are considering a $100 million dollar bond referendum, but some worry that’s not nearly enough to fix the area’s aging schools.
›