As Chapel Hill looks for more sustainable ways to fund town services, residents may be facing a 2-cent tax increase.
At a busy Monday night Town Council meeting, town manager Roger Stancil presented his recommended budget for fiscal year 2013-14. Stancil’s proposal included a 2-cent tax increase to be equally divided between the town’s transit and general funds.
Stancil said the continuing effects of the 2008 economic downturn make the tax increase necessary.
“We’ve had sluggish growth since then and, as we’ve talked about, we’ve only just in sales tax gotten back to where we were in 2008,” Stancil said.
He said in the coming year, Chapel Hill’s property tax base is expected to grow by only 0.75 percent, not nearly enough to cover major costs.
A large proportion of the proposed tax increase would go to funding services at Chapel Hill’s recently expanded public library, which reopened last month. The town hopes to have the library open 58 hours per week, up from the current 54, but down considerably from its original 68 hours per week.
The Town Council will debate Stancil’s budget over the next few weeks before a final budget is approved June 10.
Later in the meeting, council members approved changes to the town’s rules for food trucks, allowing organizers to host food truck rodeos in town. Council members also passed a motion reducing regulatory fees for food trucks from $600 to $200.
Another issue brought up at the meeting council members plan to address in future meetings was the grievance-filing process for town employees.
