Throughout the process of creating the 2015/16 fiscal year budget, Wrightsville Beach Mayor Bill Blair has said he does not want to raise residents’ taxes. During the board’s April 14 budget meeting, aldermen began budget cuts, prioritizing urgent equipment upgrades over employee salary increases.
“It’s not a matter of what we would like to do, it’s what we can afford to do,” Blair said.
He recommended the board remain conservative in its expenditures right now, especially because several sources of revenue are uncertain. For example, he said the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority might implement a new hold-back policy requiring the beach towns set aside a certain amount of their Room Occupancy Tax every year to be used in the event the beaches are hit by a hurricane and temporarily lose that source of funding.
The town also has several costly items that department heads say can’t wait for future budget cycles. Assistant public works director Steve Dellies said one of the town’s lift stations needs $300,000 worth of upgrades to effectively pump sewage off of the island during the busy summer months.
Lift station No. 1, Dellies explained, is the only lift station that pumps sewage straight off the beach.
“During the summer when lift station No. 1 is working really hard, it cannot overcome the pressure, so we have to send [the sewage] back around, and it overwhelms the lift stations,” Dellies said.
With the town budgeting for such major equipment upgrades, department requests for additional positions, salary increases and benefits might not be granted.
Ocean rescue director Dave Baker requested a small raise for his lifeguards. Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue pays about the same as Carolina and Kure beaches, he said, despite being an advanced agency with higher training standards.
Baker’s proposal, as well as police chief Dan House’s request for one additional police officer and a take-home vehicle program, might have to wait.
During a previous budget meeting House presented plans to restructure his department to fund the extra position. Capt. P. Burdette, who attended the April 14 meeting in place of House, pointed out the intangible benefits of restructuring the department to be more efficient and get an extra police officer out on the roads.
The aldermen, however, were hesitant to grant House’s request until they saw concrete evidence the restructure would not cost any additional money.
“Why don’t you have the chief put down on paper how this gets funded,” Blair told Burdette. “I think everyone wants more police, more fire, more everything, but at some point we have to be good stewards and decide how we’re going to pay for stuff. … You have to be realistic.”
The board will continue to finalize the town’s budget during its last scheduled budget meeting, Wednesday, April 29.
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