Mebane’s city council held a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to learn more of the details and assumptions behind city manager Richard White’s proposed budget, which was first presented at the council’s May 4 monthly meeting.
The council also heard three variations on White’s budget, as requested by councilman Jonathan White (no relation).
City manager White had recommended a 2-cent property tax increase for this year’s budget, increasing the city’s tax rate from 37 cents to 39 cents per $100 valuation.
But he provided three options for the council: no tax increase; a 1-cent increase; or continuing a 2-cent increase but dividing it between 1-cent that would be added to the general fund with the second penny being added to a special capital reserve fund. (That special reserve fund now gets 2 cents from the existing 37-cent tax rate.)
Each penny on the tax rate equals about $554,000, council members were told, so the options would trim either $554,000 or $1.1 million from the overall budget.
White is also proposing a significant, 10.5 percent, hike in water and sewer rates for the next fiscal year.
White’s budget projects that nine new employees will be needed for the fourth fire station – including three lieutenants, three engineers, and three firefighter III positions – in next year’s (2027-28) budget.
But meanwhile, he has three new fire department employees in this year’s budget, apparently to staff a new tiller, or aerial ladder, fire truck (and another six new employees in various areas of city government). The tiller truck for the fire department was financed in last year’s budget but has not yet been received, it was noted earlier.
In addition to the three additional fire department employees to operate the new fire truck, new personnel include: a human resources analyst; an IT specialist; a building code inspector; an equipment operator; and two maintenance technicians.
City manager White said that in the event of options that require a cut in operating expenses, he would most likely cut the human resources analyst; his second choice, if there were to be no tax increase, would be to cut one of the public facilites positions.
All employees would receive a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment, and payments for their medical and dental insurance would go up 6 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.
Perhaps add designation for capital reserves
By the end of the 1½-hour long meeting, some of the council members – mayor pro tem Tim Bradley and council member Katie Burkholder – expressed a favorable view of the 1-and-1 split. “I’ve long supported designating 3 cents to the capital reserve,” Burkholder said.
[Story continues below photos of council.]
Opposed to any property tax rate increase (1):
Leaning toward 2¢ tax rate increase divided 1¢ each between general fund and capital reserve fund (2):
Undecided on tax rate, but opposed to mgr.’s proposed pay increases for city council members (2):
“I’ve grown on [the 1-and-1 split],” Bradley said.
The council recently used all of the money in their special capital reserve fund to spend $2.9 million to purchase two separate areas for future parks, one of the south side of the city and the other on the north.
Council member Montrena Hadley made clear her ongoing opposition to any property tax increase.
Councilman White and councilman Sean Ewing were less definitive about their leanings, although Ewing said he did not oppose a tax increase per se.
Ewing said, however, that it was “absolutely unacceptable” to couple such a tax increase with a proposed raise for city council members.
Councilman White also said he did not like a “one-off [increase in council salaries] without context.”
The city manager had recommended 10 percent increases for the four regular council members (Burkholder, Ewing, Hadley, and White), 15 percent for mayor pro tem (Bradley), and 20 percent for mayor Ed Hooks.
Burkholder pointed out that the fiscal impact of the city manager’s proposed council raises would total only $4,500, a very small part of the city’s $65 million budget (or of the $46.7 million in the general fund budget where council salaries are included).
Bradley said that for cities Mebane’s size, the mayor’s stipend was 71 percent lower than the average and council stipend rates were 31 percent lower.
Council members discussed councilman White’s suggestion of perhaps going to a COLA for council members, rather than such large increases. Bradley pointed out that the council would have come out more favorably with a COLA over the last several years, rather than waiting for longer periods in between actual raises.
The council will resume consideration of the budget at its June 1 meeting at 6:00.
