Elon’s municipal leaders were in a defiant spirit this week as they responded to a recent rebuke from this newspaper’s publisher over the extensive size of the town’s savings.
Two weeks ago, an editorial in The Alamance News dinged the town’s decision makers for accumulating a “fund balance,” or financial reserve, worth 180 percent of the town’s annual budget. The editorial went on to assert that this nest egg had been built up at the expense of the town’s taxpaying residents, who most recently saw their municipal tax rate go up in excess of the “revenue neutral,” or break even, point following the county’s latest mass revaluation in 2023.
Read original editorial here: https://alamancenews.com/elon-taxes-are-still-too-high/
On Tuesday, Richard Roedner, Elon’s town manager, saw an opportunity to respond to the newspaper’s publisher when he presented the town council with a budget amendment to cover the purchase price of a new fire truck.
This budget amendment, which the council went on to adopt by a margin of 5-to-0, formally transfers $2,030,000 from the town’s $15.4 million in savings to pay for the vehicle, which is expected to come out of production on February 19 – with a projected delivery date some time in March.
“That’s one of the advantages of a fund balance,” Roedner declared as he conspicuously eyed this newspaper’s reporter, “so, you’re able to make large purchases when you need to.”
Roedner wasn’t the only one who viewed this transfer of funds as a vindication of the town’s financial policies.
“It sounds like we’re using our taxpayers’ money wisely,” Monti Allen, the town’s mayor pro tem, said before the unanimous vote for the budget amendment.
Later that night, Elon’s mayor Emily Sharpe also took a jab at the newspaper as she recounted a conversation that she had with a constituent who had been alarmed by the newspaper’s take on what the newspaper had described as the municipality’s excessive savings.
Sharpe told her colleagues that she agreed to meet with this resident after he contacted her about his concerns.
“It was a very good conversation,” she added, “and he left thinking that we do a very good job.”
TO GET MORE LOCAL NEWS EVERY WEEK – AND ONLINE EVERY DAY – CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE.
