The Durham City Council approved a $251 million budget for next year by the slightest of margins early Tuesday, raising the effective property tax rate by about 3.3 percent.
The council voted 7-6 in favor of a budget that stayed relatively close to the plan proposed last month by then-interim city manager Greg Bethea, but cut spending on a few items.
The final budget sets the city's tax rate at 53.4 cents per $100 of property value--an increase of 1.7 cents, or about 3.3 percent, over the revenue-neutral tax rate. Bethea had originally proposed a 2.5 cent increase.
Budget opponents said the city should have trimmed spending further.
"We didn't have to have a tax increase. I'm convinced of that," Mayor Pro Tem Howard Clement said, suggesting that the council could have saved money by further cutting the number of city employees. The approved budget calls for the elimination of 30 positions.
But proponents said the tax increase was reasonable, because the city faces an additional $2.2 million in debt service payments for bonds that voters approved in 1996. That sum alone accounted for 1.62 cents of the tax rate increase.
Mayor Nick Tennyson voted in favor of the plan, although he said it does not offer all that could be hoped for in an ideal budget.
"No budget ever does. But once a series of compromises are being made, I think it's important for us to move ahead," he said. "The point is, there are all sorts of choices that we made all the way through this that weren't a subject of debate at the end."
In addition to the $2.2 million increase on debt payments, the final budget includes:
- $2.8 million for a 6 percent raise for city employees: 2 percent for all employees, and an additional 4 percent for those who qualify for a merit-based increase.
Traditionally, the city has given the merit raise to almost all its employees. For instance, only two eligible city employees did not receive the raise.
Bethea had proposed a 7 percent raise; some council members had advocated even smaller increases.
$1.1 million for an initiative to maintain existing city facilities including the Armory, the Arts Council, the Carolina Theatre and City Hall. The council trimmed the sum back from the $1.6 million Bethea had suggested by eliminating some of the proposed renovations to the Durham Athletic Park.
$360,000 for 18 additional firefighters and $250,000 for seven more police officers. Bethea had originally called for 42 firefighters because of new national fire standards, but state officials have since said that they are not likely to enforce the standards for several years.
$1 million for downtown revitalization initiatives like the American Tobacco project, which was also included in last year's budget.
A few council members had wanted to do away with that expense.
Bethea said he agreed with the council's changes to his proposed budget.
"I thought they were well thought-out, reasoned decisions," he said. "As you go through the process, information changes and you get better information."
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