Brevard City Council members on Monday signaled support for a proposed property tax increase, which will fund, among other things, raises for city employees.
Council members won’t vote on next year’s budget until later this summer, but during a public hearing, they heard complaints about the suggested tax hike alongside the increased cost of living.
The tax increase would come on the heels of a county-wide property revaluation that “saw residential property values skyrocket,” City Manager Wilson Hooper explained. The recent revaluation resulted in a 54% average increase for properties across Transylvania County.
The increase in property value means that while the new proposed property tax rate is lower than last year – $.35 per $100 of property value as opposed to $.48 – property owners will actually end up paying more this year. Property tax makes up just under half of the city’s revenue.
“Natural growth will fall far short of being able to fund Council’s sacrosanct priorities while simultaneously maintaining service levels,” City Hooper wrote in his budget proposal. Those priorities include affordable housing, public transportation and raising employee pay.
The City’s overall budget is close to $27.6 million – a 6.1% increase from last year. That money is spread over four separate budgets: general fund, fire fund, stormwater fund and water/sewer fund.
The city’s biggest pot of money – the general fund – pays for things like salaries, parks and cops. The city’s police department receives 30% of the fund.
“It maintains all services, not one step back,” Hooper said of the proposed spending plan. “It covers the increased cost of things we have to buy to provide those services, like electricity for streetlights, chemicals for water treatment, vehicles to provide services with, and health care for our employees.”
The budget comes as the city responds to a decrease in tourism – its main economic driver – after Hurricane Helene. And while Brevard was largely spared from damage from the storm, the area as a whole – which includes Pisgah National Forest and Dupont State Forest – saw a decrease in visitors during what are normally peak tourism months following the storm.
“This year's budget was built during a time of economic uncertainty, slowing economy, uncertainty from Raleigh and Washington, possibly the impacts of the storm,” Hooper said.
Some residents who spoke at the city meeting Monday were critical of a 3.5% cost-of-living raise for all city employees. This was done to keep even the lowest-paid employee making more than the living wage – $17.55 an hour – for the area.
Hooper told commissioners that he considered a tiered approach to the raises, but ultimately decided against it after seeing that it would only save the city $16,000.
“We felt that the morale issues and the other consequences that we'd face by having a tiered system like that were just not worth such small savings,” he said.
Residents also lamented the almost $112,000 the city spends on funding non-profit organizations. Others said the city should not be involved in funding affordable housing, something most commissioners defended.
“ I'm not gonna listen to the cynical side of the equation that says ‘because it hasn't happened overnight, that it's not worth doing,’” Commissioner Aaron Baker said. “Some things that are really important take a little bit of time and take dedication and take multiple years of budgeting in order to see them through. And so I'm proud that we've maintained that.”