Council to discuss town budget

In June, after months of discussion, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved a budget for the coming fiscal year.

Six months later, council members are preparing to do the same thing once again.

At today's planning retreat, council members will be discussing preliminary budget projections for fiscal year 2006-07.

Town staff have prepared some information for the coming year, but town departments have not turned in their budget requests yet.

Though last year proved to be a difficult budget season, some say this year likely will be easier.

Because the Town Operations Center is completed, the budget probably won't be as difficult, said Kay Johnson, the town's finance director.

"We've already built the Town Operations Center, that was kind of the biggie last year," she said.

"There's no issue on the debt service side, which made last year such a difficult year."

The town had to begin paying more than $1.75 million in debt payments last year on the operations center - one of main factors driving the property tax increase of 2.9 cents per $100 of assessed property values.

Budget woes drove last year's council to convene a budget advisory committee to analyze the data and make recommendations.

Though it has not been decided yet whether the council will reconvene the committee this year, council member Mark Kleinschmidt said the committee definitely had a positive impact on the process.

"I do think the process last year benefited a great deal from the inclusion of ordinary citizens," he said, adding that the committee likely will be discussed at today's retreat.

Like Johnson, Kleinschmidt also thought this year might prove to be easier than the last, but he was quick to note that any decision involving tax rates was not a simple one to make.

"This might be a little less stressful, but I'm sure there is still going to be some tough decisions to make as we move toward June," he said.

"Whether or not to raise taxes is always a really hard decision."

And not everyone has been pleased with the town's decisions regarding its finances.

Robin Cutson, a candidate in the November council election and a resident who actively participated in last year's budget talks, said she again will be monitoring this year's council closely as it prepares its budget.

Cutson expressed general concern with the town's spending habits, saying the town spent too much on cultural arts and not enough on issues such as the environment.

"We need to cut spending that caters to the wealthy," she said.

"I would like to see Chapel Hill get back to what Chapel Hill used to stand for ... and we've moved away from that."

Also at today's planning retreat, council members will be discussing their legislative requests for 2006.

The retreat will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Public Library.

 

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