Calling it a “hold the line kind of budget,” on Tuesday night Town Manager Mark Williams presented his proposed 2014-2015 budget that includes a one penny tax increase that would go toward the operating expenses for the Wake Forest Fire Department’s Station #4 on Jenkins Road.
The increase, if approved by the town commissioners, would raise the tax rate on town property to 52 cents per $100 valuation. The town’s estimated tax base is $3,939,067,000, yielding $21,774,900 for the general fund, 61 percent of the total general fund budget of $35,780,155.
The last time there was a tax rate change was in 2008, a county-wide revaluation year when there was a jump in property values. Williams recommended a 46-cent tax rate, one penny more than a revenue-neutral rate, with the penny raising the fire department’s share to 9 cents. The board decided to add 4 cents into the tax rate in lieu of garbage fees, a saving for most homeowners, and added another penny for the fire department, making a rate of 51 cents.
The town’s overall budget for the coming year – including the separately operated Wake Forest Power ($20,305,160) and the special revenue funds for the Downtown Municipal Services District ($90,000) and the new Renaissance Centre Fund ($200,000) – is $56,375,315.
Town residents will have an opportunity to voice their opinions of the proposed budget at a public hearing May 20 at 7 p.m. at the beginning of the town board’s regular meeting. The commissioners will hold one or more work sessions after the hearing and are scheduled to approve the budget during their June meeting.
During a media briefing Wednesday morning, Williams said his opinion is that the fire department has made its case for additional funding for operations. The increase will mean the independent department receives 11 cents of the 52-cent tax rate, about $4,603,390, to operate the current four stations and add staff for the Jenkins Road station.
Williams said the station is needed to adequately serve the western side of town and the fire district extending past it. “The station will benefit the Falls Lake area of the county as much as the town’s western edge,” he said. “There is still the political issue of why isn’t the county in the picture,” and indicated the town and fire department will continue to pressure Wake County into helping with the operating costs.
Williams approved five new positions and said many more were requested. “I felt these were the most critical. The police department asked for five for a traffic squad, but that’s something that’s got to wait a year.”
He proposes to add a person to Public Information Officer Bill Crabtree’s staff and hire a new transportation planner while promoting Senior Planner Candace Davis to a supervisor. Davis has been in charge of all the grant application in the planning department, and with all the street and greenway grants in process, “she’s swamped,” Williams said. One position will be added Mickey Rochelle’s staff in public facilities because of the added work with the Renaissance Centre.
Two new positions in parks and recreation will be people specifically tasked with greenway maintenance. “People are using them,” Williams said and they need to be properly maintained.
Also, Finance Director Aileen Staples said, there is $82,000 set aside to assess the condition of the greenways: paving, bridges and boardwalks. That is with an eye to the greenways and parks bond issue the town will ask voters to approve in November. Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said the City of Raleigh will soon be installing new sewer lines along Smith Creek and damaging the greenway there, but the city will repair the damage.
Instead of five new policemen, the police department may get two heavy-duty motorcycles with a trailer and equipment, listed as $97,500 in the budget, if a grant proposal is successful. O’Donnell said they would be used for fair weather patrolling and other duties.
There will be no increase in the electric rates. (Water and sewer rates are set by the City of Raleigh.) Williams said the power agency through which the town purchases its power had been ready to increase the wholesale rates in January but decided against it because the agency is negotiating with Duke Energy Progress to sell the town’s share in several power plants. “The sale to Duke may lower the wholesale rate,” he said.
The town is seeing a 20 percent in its health insurance premiums through Blue Cross Blue Shield, a lot of it due to major illness during the past year, Williams said during the Tuesday night meeting. Human Resources Director Virginia Jones is working to cut the cost increase to the town, which would be $100 for each employee currently.
The budget will dip into its savings – called fund balance – for $1.8 million to pay for some one-time capital expense items listed in the capital outlay summary with $418,490 used to balance the budget. That $418,490 amounts to one penny on the tax rate, Williams said, and they thought it would be better to use money from savings rather than adding a penny to the tax rate.
Some of those capital projects are replacing the roof and upgrading the deck at the Community House, providing heat in the Flaherty Park restrooms to make them usable year-round, replacing the fencing at R.H. Forrest Park, building restrooms at Tyler Run, Heritage and Smith Creek parks, renovating the customer service area in town hall and buying two 60-inch zero turn mowers for the parks and recreation department.
In the electric fund, the town will take $1.4 million from savings to purchase equipment, improve the system and go forward with the “smart grid” plan, which includes two-way meters (new) which will allow the town, among other things, to know when there is no power in a home.
Williams kept the status quo for the requests from outside agencies, turning down a request for $5,000 from Hospice of Wake County, and funding others at the current level.
Those include $98,500 to the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce to manage the town’s economic development program, and chamber President Marla Akridge met with the town board Tuesday night for about half an hour to discuss economic development matters.
The Fourth of July Committee asked for and will get $5,000; Resources for Seniors, which operates the town-owned Northern Wake Senior Center, will get $4,000; the Wake Forest College Birthplace (the Wake Forest Historical Museum) will get $4,000 when it asked for $6,000; and the Wake Forest Boys and Girls Club will get $7,500 when it asked for $8,000.
