The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners held its first public hearing this week on the 2016-17 recommended budget that proposed a property tax increase. Meanwhile, the Wilmington City Council took its first votes on a budget that kept tax rates the same.
County manager Chris Coudriet said the raise in property tax was necessary, with voters approving $340 million since 2008 on public investments.
“We have not addressed the revenue side of meeting those financial obligations,” said Coudriet, who added that the staff didn’t “relish” the fact that they needed to propose the tax increase. “It is all with that long-term perspective that we have financial obligations that the community has approved.”
The proposed budget of $317.7 million is a 3 percent increase over 2015-16, with a proposed 62.9 cent property tax rate, an increase of 5.5 cents from last year.
During the public hearing on Monday, June 6, several of the organizations that received funding spoke about how the resources benefited the community, including New Hanover County Schools, Cape Fear Community College, Access Miracle Leagues, Recovery Resource Center, Coastal Horizon Open House Rape Crisis Center and the Arts Council of New Hanover County and Wilmington, among others.
In one exchange, New Hanover County Commissioner Woody White said that while he and his family personally supported the mission of Phoenix Hometown Hires, which focuses on job training and life skills, he had concerns about devoting public funding toward it.
“It’s very easy for my wife and me to support that personally,” White said of the organization’s mission, whose clients include former prisoners. “It’s more difficult for me to devote other people’s money to support that. I think that’s a choice that citizens ought to make on their own. When we’re asked to pick and choose different groups, it’s difficult to know. I know about the strength of yours, but I don’t know about the strength of others.”
Phoenix Hometown Hires executive director Will Rikard responded that criminal recidivism rates can be as high as 60 percent.
“If we’re not serving these people, there’s a very good chance they’ll end up back in the criminal justice system,” Rikard said. “The public can decide where they want to spend the money, in jails and in the court system or in organizations that do what we do.”
After the public hearing, New Hanover County Commission Chairwoman Beth Dawson said that there was still time for more negotiations on the budget.
“Not one of us wants to raise taxes to generate revenue to balance the budget,” Dawson said. “We have not reached consensus yet on this budget.”
Commissioner Skip Watkins proposed $7.7 million in budget adjustments, which he said include some cuts and some in spending. However, instead of holding another work session on the budget, Watkins said individual meetings between board members was proving more productive. The board of commissioners needs to approve a budget by June 27.
On Tuesday, the Wilmington City Council unanimously approved its $104 million budget in the first of two votes. It will vote again on the budget on June 21.
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