Mebane city manager Richard J. White, III outlined his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
Similar to the preliminary information he had provided to the city council on April 9, the budget would include a 2-cent property tax increase, from 37 to 39 cents per $100 valuation.
White is also proposing a significant, 10.5 percent, hike in water and sewer rates for the next fiscal year.
Mebane’s council will review the budget during a special meeting next Wednesday afternoon. A public hearing on the budget has been set for the council’s June 1 meeting.
White said he had included in his proposed budget the $6 million to construct the city’s fourth fire station at the entrance to the North Carolina Commerce Park off Trollingwood-Hawfields Road, across from the site of the future Buc-ee’s travel plaza, for which interchange improvements along I-85/40 began last year.
Mebane’s main fire station, at 405 North First Street, houses the fire marshal’s office and training division. The original fire department at 103 West Washington Street is unmanned (volunteer-only). Mebane fire chief John Wellons is based at the city’s newest fire substation, at 1469 Mebane Oaks Road, which also houses the department’s fire and life safety education program.
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.
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.
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.
The manager has also penciled in raises for the city council: 10 percent for council members (Katie Burkholder, Sean Ewing, Montrena Hadley, and Jonathan White); 15 percent for mayor pro tem Tim Bradley; and 20 percent for mayor Ed Hooks.
Among other capital projects in the manager’s budget are: a public works shed ($1.57 million); replacement of one soccer field at the community park ($750,000); four replacement police cars ($300,000); replacement leaf vacuum truck ($285,000); a replacement jetter ($175,000); a new office for public works/public utilities ($160,000); and $100,000 for a security project at city hall, including adding metal detectors.
The manager contends that, even with the 10.5 percent increase in water and sewer rates, Mebane residents will pay less than other nearby cities, such as Graham, Cary, Winston-Salem, Hillsborough, and Apex.
Not all city council members received the higher tax rate budget with immediate approval. Council member Montrena Hadley recently voted against spending $2.9 million to buy land for two future parks, saying she was concerned that doing so would inevitably contribute to a tax rate increase in this year’s budget, which she said she opposes.
Councilman Jonathan White asked the manager to put together some additional alternative budgets for next week’s meeting that have a lower, or no, property tax rate increase.
He also asked what is the natural growth in property tax revenues.
Councilman White also questioned the on-again, off-again approach to municipal hiring. The city manager had provided a graphic that showed the city hired nine new employees during the 2023-2024 budget, none the next year, and one each in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.
With nine new employees recommended for this year, and another nine already being projected for next year (to staff the fire station), the councilman wanted to know “what’s changed about our finances” that determines whether additional personnel are requested or can be afforded.
Mayor pro tem Tim Bradley also wanted the manager to come prepared to discuss how much of the downtown corporation is being financed by any entity other than the city. “What’s coming in other than from us?” he questioned.
Manager White also highlighted legislation under consideration in Raleigh, both to freeze property tax revaluations, as well as to limit the amount cities could increase property tax rates in future years.
The council will resume discussion of the manager’s budget at 1:00 p.m. on May 13, and conduct the public hearing on the budget on June 1 at 6:00 p.m., both meetings at city hall.
