The annual budget process is occurring simultaneously in government offices around the state, where, in the face of continued general assembly cuts to the municipalities, the cry can be overheard: Where we are going as a municipality collides with the lack of money to fund that!
The Wrightsville board is three of four meetings deep into the 2015/16 fiscal year budget.
In the face of a proposed 4-5 cent county tax increase, as well as a 3-4 cent city increase (WB second home property is frequently owned by city residents), none of Wrightsville’s elected officials desire to raise its property tax rate. Unless new revenue streams are identified, services and payrolls cannot increase and the very real possibility exists for these to be cut in the face of the annual increase in the cost of doing business. Case in point: Even with cost shopping, the town’s health insurance tab hiked an additional 15 percent over last year.
Aldermen have been considering budget cuts to balance the $13 million budget, which is generally static from the previous year. The consensus of the board at this point is to fund urgent equipment upgrades rather than employee salary increases.
One of the perpetual complaints from town department heads, notably the police and fire chiefs, is non-competitive wages place the town into a position of being a training ground for other municipalities. As soon as an employee has training and experience under his or her belt, he or she is recruited by larger, better paying municipalities and the expensive, labor-intensive hiring and training process begins all over again.
In spite of this turnover challenge, requests by each department head to add manpower and salary increases plus benefits may not be approved.
While aldermen may balk at pay raises for some departments, the ocean rescue program is 100 percent funded by New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) allocations. Aldermen are weighing a request for a small pay raise for Wrightsville’s advanced level certification ocean rescue personnel. The elite squad receives about the same compensation as neighboring beach towns, but are recognized far and wide as being among the best of the best in the United States.
Police chief Dan House has a request in for one additional police officer and implementation of a take-home vehicle program. The plan would make House’s department more competitive with neighboring municipalities, but the morale-boosting move will increase the budget in the cost of additional vehicles, with increased ongoing annual costs for insurance and fuel.
Acknowledging everyone wants more police and fire boots on the ground, the board has requested additional numbers from House about his proposal to restructure his department and fund an extra position this year. His department added a full time position in 2011. A little known fact about the police beach officer program is $100,000 is also reimbursed by the TDA.
Every year the town takes a beating over the price to park at Wrightsville but parking is the second largest revenue stream for the town, after property taxes.
Last year’s parking numbers had the town excited until the August rains hit. The town may see an increase in parking based on the number of paid spaces under consideration, but wet weather means a decrease in parking revenue.
Faced with no new source of revenue, at the same time the town is eying very real potential cuts to its revenue stream.
The present mood of the board is to remain conservative in its expenditures this year, without raising taxes, despite urgent needs to aging and crumbling infrastructure long neglected by prior boards.
Mayor Bill Blair, who, in addition to his stint on the planning board, served as alderman four years, sat out 2012-13, to be elected again for his current term. One of Blair’s frustrations, shared by former town manager Bob Simpson, was the gutting of carefully crafted long-range capital improvement budgeting for infrastructure upgrades like aging water lines, not to mention sewage. Some of those needs have come back to haunt the town, like its failing water lines and water quality.
One of the town’s lift stations needs $300,000 worth of improvements to handle pumping sewage off of the island when the town experiences dramatic poo hikes during the busy summer months. This lift station is described as overwhelmed; unable to meet the demands of the fast approaching summer tourism season.
Paying for future equipment needs can be viable when planned in advance, and Simpson was continually frustrated by the former board’s robbing and eliminating capital improvement projects from the budget to appease voters by not raising taxes.
This current board must set aside revenue now to pay the town’s portion of the hefty, about-to-come-due tab for the NEI No. 2 improvements following the 2006 massive city of Wilmington sewage spill. The $15 million to $18 million bill looms on the horizon. A source of new revenue might be an additional increase in water and sewer fees, which increased healthily in 2014.
One bright spot? The planning and inspection department took in 100 percent more than budgeted due to the increase in new construction and home up-fit permits. But this one-time unbudgeted $150,000 doesn’t help the current budget.
Aldermen are concerned about a hold-back policy proposed by TDA that in theory sounds good and is prudent planning, but would require sidelining a portion of the annual Room Occupancy Tax revenue to be used in the event the beaches are hit by a hurricane and temporarily lose that source of marketing funding.
And then there is sales tax. Sales tax revenue collected from the town’s businesses is the third largest town revenue stream. The system sends a portion of sales tax revenue back to where the sales are made.
The budget has already been revised downward $80,000 based on anticipated New Hanover County property tax increases, Mayor Blair said.
Even more disturbing is Senate Bill 369, Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown’s redistribution of wealth legislation to take sales tax from wealthy counties and redistribute it to poorer ones. Blair said legislation would strip some 60 percent of the town’s sales tax collections. Under the proposal the town stands to lose at least $720,000 in sales tax revenue.
That’s not gonna cut it.
