Paul Coble talks about Wake County school funding in State of County address

In case you didn't get the message today, Wake County Commissioners haven't raised the property-tax rate in four years.

It's a message that Commissioners Chairman Paul Coble repeatedly referred to during his 2012 State of the County Address. That message was often co-mingled with his discussion about education funding.

"In January of each year, the board of commissioners creates goals for the upcoming year," Coble said. "Our number-one goal was maintaining the property tax rate at 53.4 cents.

I'm proud that we were able to keep it at that rate for the fourth straight year. Not only that, we were able to increase funding for our highest priorities: education and public safety."

Coble would revisit the school funding/no tax raise issue later in the talk.

"To help future workers, we need to continue to aggressively fund the educational needs in our community," Coble said. "Education is a priority for our board and for our residents. More than one-third of the county's budget is related to education.

I'm proud that we were able to increase education funding without increasing the property tax rate. Even in these tough economic times, we have been able to keep the tax rate steady while providing additional funding."

Coble said that the school system's funding from the county had been "relatively flat" the prior three years due to "recessionary pressures."

This year, the school board's new Democratic majority had asked for an $8.8 million funding increase. The Republican majority on the commissioners voted to give a $3.9 million increase.

The prior two years, the Republican majority on the school board didn't ask commissioners for a funding increase.

In terms of the school bond, Coble said in the future they'll be "working with the school board on a realistic capital plan to keep up with growth."