Despite the downturn in the economy, the town of Wendell seems to be faring well from a financial standpoint.

Town Finance Director Butch Kay told commissioners last night that the town is slightly ahead of revenue projections through the first six months of the year and well below projections on spending.

According to Kay's report, the town has collected about 54 percent of expected revenues through the first six months of the year.

Through that same time period, the town has spent only about 39 percent of the money it expected to spend.

Kay is watching the numbers closely, though. October sales taxes, which account for about 20 percent of the town's revenues, were below projects. That's first month the numbers didn't reach projections.

According to Kay, the town needs about $81,700 per month in sales tax revenues to make its budget. Kay is hoping the November and December sales tax revenues will slip back over the $81,000 mark. If they are significantly higher he says, then the pressure to make budget will lessen significantly.

A lag in how sales tax revenues are dispersed means Kay won't see the November revenues for another month. December's figures will come in a month after that.

Wendell Commissioner Carol Hinnant asked Kay to provide commissioners with more frequent updates on the town's finances. Currently, Kay reports to the board once a quarter. He will start providing commissioners with a monthly update starting next month.

At Saturday's retreat, the Orange County commissioners looked at a lot of graphs. One compared the growth in the county's general fund, which pays for operating expenses, and the growth in the value of real property. Property taxes paid for 71 percent of the county's $183 million budget this fiscal year.

The problem, according to Commissioner Mike Nelson, is that the first number has been increasing at a higher rate than the second. In other words, the county is increasing its spending faster than property taxes have been growing to pay for that spending. In fact, projections show county spending rising 5.8 percent a year over the next five years while property values rise just 3.9 percent.

The county can offset the difference by continuing to draw down its reserves or, of course, by raising the tax rate on that real property base.   

Neither is palatable to Nelson, a relatively new commissioner and former mayor of Carrboro.

"I have a fundamental, philosophical, ideological problem with the way this organization had done budgeting," he told county budget director Donna Coffey, County Manager Laura Blackmon and his fellow board members. "It's brought about tax increases."

Read more from the retreat in this week's News & Observer and Chapel Hill News.  

Here is the list of projects to be funded by the proposed 1 percent prepared-food tax.

A committee of city and county officials approved the list last Tuesday; it has yet to be approved by the city council and board of county commissioners.

Items with two start dates indicate two different phases.

(The list did not appear earlier because of technical difficulties. It is now attached.) 

Documents:

The tax is always lower on the other side of the fence. Or is it?

Andy Shook expressed a familiar feeling when he returned to North Carolina recently. He believed he had moved into a higher tax bracket.

Bruce, after leaving NC in 1983, going to Atlanta, SC (Metro CLT) and returning to Apex, I am blown away by all the new, increased taxes in NC. In GA, it is written into the State constitution that all gas tax $ can only be spent on roads and bridges. They have the 2nd lowest gas tax and excellent roads. ...
SC, which has the lowest gas tax, also has it written that all gas tax only go to roads, bridges and heavy DOT equipment.

I prepared to commiserate with Andy. First, though, I did a little research. ...

Prior to laying out a budget proposal that was quickly approved by the City Council last night, Mayor Charles Meeker handed out copies of an MSNBC feature that merged all the "best places" rankings together to come up with the best places list to end all best places list. (Essentially, the author unscientifically combined the best lists from Forbes, Kiplinger, Money Magazine, Fortune and Relocate-America.com.) And guess who ended up on top? That's right. Raleigh, North Carolina.

Meeker used this press clipping to argue that such a ranking was in no small part due to the recent decisions made by the City Council to tear up Fayetteville Street, build the convention center and make other major investments in the city. According to Meeker, the city is at yet another crossroads now and needs to keep investing if it is to stay on top of the rankings. (Just think what Raleigh will be ranked after the new public safety center gets built!)

Meeker went on to make one of his more astute political moves in recent years. He took the money that will be raised from the recently enacted higher impact fees and put it towards paying down the city's debt. This enabled the council to reduce Russell Allen's proposed property tax increase from 5 cents to 4.18 cents. Granted, the decrease is less than a cent, but it allowed Meeker to make a connection between higher impact fees and lower property taxes. The move was sort of a local version of President Bill Clinton announcing that the budget surplus should be used to save social security.

A final note: The only two council members who voted against the budget were Philip Isley and Russ Stephenson. Bonus points to the person who can come with another vote when those two ideological soulmates represented the only opposition on an issue.

There's a full agenda for tomorrow night's Orange County Commissioners meeting.

There's the budget, obviously.

But commissioners will also be discussing a possible sales tax increase referendum, criteria for the county's solid waste transfer station search, the hunt for a new county attorney and joint planning with Chatham County.

There's also a public hearing on a special use permit for the Montessori Farm School project near Hillsborough.