Alamance County's commissioners have tentatively agreed to rejigger the county manager's proposed budget to increase its allocation of savings, and decrease its capital outlays, in order to keep the property tax rate at 49.4 cents for every $100 of value.
The board of commissioners tentatively rallied around these two changes on Monday during a three-hour-long workshop that allowed them to delve into the particulars of a spending plan that county manager Heidi York had rolled out in May.
During the course of this workshop, commissioner Ed Priola proposed that the commissioners overrule York's reluctance to touch the general fund's unassigned savings in order to come up with the nearly $6.2 million to offset a 2.25 cent property tax hike that the county manager had proposed to the commissioners. As an alternative, commissioner Sam Powell suggested cannibalizing the general fund's capital outlays to reduce Priola's proposed allocation of the general fund's savings by $2 million.
Powell's version of Priola's plan received a skeptical response from the county manager who argued that it would still use some form of savings to cover what are essentially recurring expenses. The plan also received some pushback from commissioner Pam Thompson.
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Priola and Powell proposed modified budget plan
“So, we're going to take money out of our savings account to pay our bills again?†Thompson declared. “You have recommended against that,†the commissioner added addressing York directly, “and I'm not going to support it.â€
Powell nevertheless stressed that his recommendation would keep the county's property tax rate at its current level – a goal that earned the full-hearted support of Priola.
“I think the taxpayers are being squeezed,†Priola told the rest of the board. “People are losing their homes and looking to move out of the county. . . We don't need another tax increase. We can fund everything that we need, and that's my 2.25 cents.â€
Most of the board reached a consensus in favor of Powell's alternative to Priola's proposal. As an further addendum, the group generally agreed to swap out $150,000 that York had earmarked to study the “compression†of county staff salaries for funds to purchase uniforms for EMS and “whole blood†supplies for several ambulances.
The commissioners directed the county's administrators to draw up a draft budget based on these changes that would presumably come up for a vote on the evening of June 15.
