The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on March 18 to discuss the Orange Water and Sewer Authority annual update and occupancy tax spending.
What’s New?
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Michael Hughes, an Orange Water and Sewer Authority board member, presented the company’s annual update report, highlighting the development of a water treatment plant, OWASA’s Care to Share and bill relief programs, the celebration of 15 years of reclaimed water and their support for western North Carolina.
- OWASA has been working for several years to bring polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels in drinking water down to the limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Currently, the company’s PFAS-filtering facility is in the design phase, and construction is expected to begin in 2026.
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Mary Tiger, OWASA’s director of community relations, presented information on the company’s bill relief program. She said the goal of the program is to increase accessibility of water bill assistance. The program provided over $18,000 to 84 families in 2024.
- Because the average water bill in Orange County is expected to increase between 42-49 percent over the next five years, OWASA proposed an expansion of Care to Share.
- “Our services are not getting any more affordable, and the existing support is inadequate,” Tiger said. “There’s a few directions that we could go in setting up a program. The proposed program outlined in your agenda is one that utilizes existing social services — that is food nutrition services — and existing agencies, your Orange County Department of Social Services, to pre-qualify recipients for bill relief."
- The updated program would cost OWASA between $125,000 and $340,00 per year, and the company is seeking government assistance.
- “Our services are not getting any more affordable, and the existing support is inadequate,” Tiger said. “There’s a few directions that we could go in setting up a program. The proposed program outlined in your agenda is one that utilizes existing social services — that is food nutrition services — and existing agencies, your Orange County Department of Social Services, to pre-qualify recipients for bill relief."
- Because the average water bill in Orange County is expected to increase between 42-49 percent over the next five years, OWASA proposed an expansion of Care to Share.
- The board unanimously voted to approve their annual review and approval of amendments to their advisory board policy.
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Lindsey Shewmaker, director of the Orange County Department of Social Services, presented a one-year update on Orange County’s Medicaid Expansion Program, which aims to expand coverage. The program was approved in 2023.
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The majority of Medicaid Expansion Program enrollees over the first year of the program were white, female, between the ages of 19 and 29 and located in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough.
- Shewmaker said that federally imposed work requirements may affect around 47 percent of North Carolina Medicaid enrollees.
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The majority of Medicaid Expansion Program enrollees over the first year of the program were white, female, between the ages of 19 and 29 and located in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough.
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Kirk Vaughn, the county’s budget director, gave presentations on occupancy tax and its uses.
- Under Orange County law, 10 percent of occupancy tax revenues can be used for visitor information services or cultural events, which Vaughn said is lenient. The state guidelines require two-thirds of revenue to be used to promote tourism, and one-third to cover tourism expenditures, Vaughn said.
- Vaughn presented three options, which included keeping spending the same, allocating a portion of occupancy tax to other expenses or allocating some of the funds to initiatives that would help meet the occupancy tax guidelines.
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Laurie Paolicelli, the executive director of the Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau, said that because the visitors bureau has existed for so long, it does not make sense to go by the current state guidelines, but rather to go by the county’s own framework that was put into place decades before.
- “If you were a county starting a visitors bureau, I’d say, ‘Yes, absolutely, go by these [guidelines],’” she said. “But you started the visitor bureau in 1992.”
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Laurie Paolicelli, the executive director of the Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau, said that because the visitors bureau has existed for so long, it does not make sense to go by the current state guidelines, but rather to go by the county’s own framework that was put into place decades before.
- Vaughn presented three options, which included keeping spending the same, allocating a portion of occupancy tax to other expenses or allocating some of the funds to initiatives that would help meet the occupancy tax guidelines.
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Commissioner Marilyn Carter suggested maximizing flexibility and to prepare for a possible recession.
- “We [can] revisit it as we become clearer on what is happening at the federal level, because we may need to have those conversations," she said. "There’s a lot of unknowns, we heard that earlier tonight. But that we try to keep as much stability in the planning through the budget process as we can.”
What’s next?
The Orange County Board of Commissioners will meet again on Wednesday, April 1, in the Whitted Building in Hillsborough.
