Will bond referendum make taxes go up? Sweeten Creek work delayed? CIBO gets answers.
ASHEVILLE - At least one local road project has stalled and taxes might go up depending on how a bond referendum plays out.
Those were two of many points Buncombe's Council of Independent Business Owners heard at their June 3 breakfast, where they got a brief glimpse into the county's fiscal and transportation future.
Buncombe County Commission Chair Brownie Newman and North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 13 engineers Nathan Moneyham and Steve Cannon addressed the group of business leaders during its monthly issues meeting at UNC Asheville's Sherrill Center.
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Newman reviewed Buncombe County's 2023 fiscal year budget, which is set for finalization June 21 and will take effect July 1.
The proposed 2023 budget is just shy of $400 million and focuses heavily on education, human services and public safety. Property taxes, currently set at 48.8 cents per $100, won't go up this year, Newman said, something County Manager Avril Pinder first announced during her recommended budget presentation May 19.
Newman focused on what might be one of county government's standout moments during the 2023 fiscal year — a Nov. 8 bond referendum in which residents will decide whether Buncombe should borrow $40 million for affordable housing construction and $30 million for open space and land conservation.
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Newman responded to a question on the county's credit rating.
"Good news is Buncombe County is a AAA credit rated county," he said. "So we have the most favorable credit rating that local governments can qualify for. So really that gives us permission to access debt on the most favorable terms that can be found."
A very preliminary study completed by Trust for Public Land and Impact Research showed the $70 million in bonds would cost a typical Buncombe household about $34 annually for 20 years.
Those figures were calculated based on an assumption the bonds would be issued simultaneously at a 4% interest rate. It also assumed no future growth in tax payer base, which leaders and those who conducted the study said is extremely unlikely.
Despite this, the study also found general enthusiasm for the borrowing in a poll of Buncombe residents: 71% said they would vote for the land conservation bond and 63% said they would vote for the affordable housing bond, indicating the referendum is likely to be successful come the general election.
Newman said June 3 the economic downturn of COVID-19 touched Buncombe but the county recovered extremely well.
"Revenues were temporarily down, but Buncombe County's rebounded far quicker and much stronger than really any of us anticipated," he said.
"It ended up being one of these dynamics where actually Buncombe County ended up faring a lot better from a sales tax revenue standpoint than we would have anticipated under a sort of natural growth of our economy. A lot of people felt like Asheville and Buncombe County are a good place to go visit when not a lot else was happening."
The county consistently has been ahead of budgeted sales tax revenue.
But that's been offset by inflation, he said, adding that investing in public service is now key to how the county grows.
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Creating inroads for affordable housing remains a top priority for commissioners, who have pitched investing in about 3,000 affordable units by 2030, something Newman emphasized at the CIBO meeting.
"We are not alone in the affordable housing issues that we face in Buncombe County," he said. "Really all of the rapidly growing metropolitan areas in North Carolina are all facing challenges in bringing affordable housing online. We're experiencing real growth."
With a plan to invest the $40 million in borrowed money to affordable housing construction alone and $30 million in bonds to conserve open space, farmland and wildlife areas, Newman addressed the elephant in the room — will property taxes go up?
"Whether that would require a tax increase or not is yet to be determined," he said of the planned borrowing. "We're still looking at that. We're retiring existing debt. We are looking at growth in the budget. So how this would this actually change the tax rate? It's a little to early to tell that."
Sweeten Creek widening delayed a decade
Moneyham and Cannon discussed a number of projects in Buncombe, where there are an estimated 66 projects working through a 10-year completion process known as the "State Transportation Improvement Program" or "STIP."
Cannon noted price tags on a few of Buncombe's STIP projects including:
Two I-26 connector projects — $966 million.
An intersection at US 19/23 or Smoky Park Highway and Enka Heritage Road — $1.3 million.
The new I-26 interchange — $32.5 million.
One of the 66 STIP projects is improvement to Sweeten Creek Road, which Cannon said is currently delayed until after 2033, contrary to the current schedule posted online, which had construction starting in 2027.
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Nearly 5.5 miles from Hendersonville Road to Rock Hill Road is set to be widened from two lanes to four.
The corridor is bustling with development and people want to know what's going to happen and when.
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"We get a lot of questions about this area that's growing rapidly," Cannon said. There's a lot of questions about real estate impact. As we move forward we'll be able to answer those questions better, but right now we're on hold."
He said improvements on Sweeten Creek Road will probably come "post 2033" now.
"One of the options we're looking at is, are there certain intersection improvements that can be made in the meantime to provide some relief," he said.
Another Buncombe NCDOT project with intense public interest is repaving on Merrimon Avenue, which is set to start by summer and wrap by October.
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After an Asheville City Council vote of approval May 24, the entire stretch will be repaved and restriped, the northern section, from W.T. Weaver Boulevard to Midland Road, will be impacted by a four-lane to two-lane conversion, termed a "road diet" by project officials.
"The whole purpose behind the road diet is safety," Cannon said. "We know it's going to be potentially slower traffic. But the slower traffic you have, the less severe accidents you have. We will be monitoring that closely."
Andrew Jones is Buncombe County government and health care reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: CIBO hears talks on Buncombe bond referendum, big NCDOT road projects
