The town of Hillsborough, like Chapel Hill, is aiming for no increase in the effective tax rate. But if there has to be a tax increase, the Town Board wants to keep it below the inflation rate.
Staff recently presented cost-containment ideas to the Town Board. Ideas the board might pursue include:
• Reorganizing the Police Department structure — Under the proposal, positions would be transferred from the community policing division to the patrol division. The change from a two-squad to a four-squad patrol structure would help contain overtime costs while also increasing officer safety and police presence as more backup police officers would be available. The restructuring also would help expand the community policing philosophy throughout the department, increasing officer engagement with the community.
• Delaying the eligibility for longevity pay for town employees — The Town Board discussed delaying eligibility for the bonus pay to three to five years of service for the town. The bonus is given annually during the week of Thanksgiving and increases with the number of years an employee has worked for the town.
• Delaying the eligibility for retirement insurance benefits for town employees — The town currently provides medical coverage at age 55 for regular employees and at age 52 for sworn law enforcement employees who retire from the town with 20 years of continuous service. Under the proposal, the time required for new employees to become eligible for retiree health benefits would be increased to 30 years of service. The eligible age for benefits also would be increased to age 60 for regular employees and age 57 for sworn law enforcement.
• Having the Orange Rural Fire Department help with fire inspections.
• Starting a fire code self-inspection program for those facilities found non-compliant during an initial inspection by the fire marshal — The fire marshal currently re-inspects non-compliant buildings up to two additional times.
The Town Board also found the idea of adding a purchasing officer to the town as worth pursuing with additional investigation. Currently, each town department is responsible for purchasing needs with little, if any, coordination between departments.
Comments
Chapel Hill was facing a tax increase...
Thu, 01/29/2009 - 01:15 — CitizenWillEven before the economic fallout, Chapel Hill was facing a tax increase.
I believe the Council, as in years before, expected an increase in revenues due to the way revaluations are calculated for Chapel Hill to cover what continues to be short-sighted fiscal policy. The Lot $5 debacle has further decreased our Town's financial options - to the point of a 10 cents or more increase.
Unlike a few years ago, when Council imprudently decreased our Town's reserves to cover their mismanagement, the options for covering the revenue shortfall, even before the current economic crisis, were limited.
Don't buy the propaganda, the seeds of the last few years of financial difficulty were planted both in years of poor financial management exacerbated by 2003's bond obligations.
Roger Stancil's recent efforts and the adoption of the multi-year budget process I pushed in 2004-2005 are appreciated but substantive changes in how we budget continue to be necessary.
Where, for instance, is a citizen's committee on the budget? Where is an honest appraisal of forward revenue shortfalls and the real liability presented by Lot $5?
Maybe, as in years past, revaluations will take some of the sting out of the mess, and the Council will politically capitalize on a short term reprieve but lurching year to year without a longterm plan for sustainable growth based on a revenue stream that doesn't rob Chapel Hill of its "coolness" (yes, fiscal policy is directly related to the decreasing diversity within our Town) continues to be unworthy of this community.