Let's Talk Money
Let's Talk Money
Let's Talk Money
July 7, 2022
The Chapel Hill and Carrboro Town Councils and the County Commissioners approved their Fiscal Year 2022-2023 budgets and are now in summer recess. The Daily Tar Heel City Desk provided some excellent summaries as did the Orange County manager. Here's their skinny in case you missed it.
CHAPEL HILL
Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously approved the $129.38 million budget for FY 2022-2023, as well as $546,500 for human services agencies during its Wednesday, June 8, 2022 meeting (view the budget). This budget includes an increase in the property tax rate to 52.2 centers per 100 dollars (from 51.4 cents with the .8-cent increase going towards Chapel Hill Transit needs).
This budget emphasizes 1) climate action (climate action plan funding increased by $80,000 to over $550,000 for the coming fiscal year), 2) affordable housing and homelessness initiatives ($329,000 for Affordable Housing Performance Agreements, which ensures affordable housing opportunities, and an additional funding of $258,000 was dedicated to the Inter-Faith Council, $126,000 to the Street Outreach, Harm Reduction and Deflection Program), and 3) downtown development (the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership will receive $170k from the town’s general fund in addition to about 40% of the MSD (which is approximately $150k of the $400k MSD total), for a grand total of $320k. Read more.
CARRBORO
Carrboro Town Council approved the $27.7 million budget for FY 2022-2023 during its Tuesday, June 21, 2022 meeting (view the budget - the adopted budget should be updated on this page soon).
This budget includes $395,916 for economic development, $217,846 for climate action and $600,129 for housing and community services. Additionally, $568,423 is appropriated for the Affordable Housing Fund, and a tax rate of 1.5 cents on each $100 of taxable property will be dedicated solely to the fund. Read more.
ORANGE COUNTY
Orange County Commissioners approved the $258.1 million budget for FY 2022-2023 during its Tuesday, June 21, 2022 meeting (view the budget).
This budget sets the property tax rate at 83.12 cents per $100 assessed valuation, an increase of 1.25 cents. The property tax increase will cover increased debt service payments and provide additional funding to Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Systems. One penny of the tax increase will go to the schools, while 0.25 cents will be used to pay for increased debt service payments.
Also, the budget sets Current Expense funding for the two school districts at $93.5 million, or $4,808 per pupil. The per pupil increase of $441 per student is the largest increase in county history. In addition, the budget includes $25.5 million in additional education funding for school-related debt service and for a school nurse in every elementary, middle and high school and School Resource Officers in every middle and high school.
One more thing to note about the county, the commercial/residential property tax base split has softened with 20% of the county tax base now coming from commercial property tax (up from 16% five years ago). Read more.