What’s in Wake County’s proposed budget for schools, public safety and employees?
This time last year, Wake County was expecting the worst.
North Carolina was just two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and Wake County approved a slashed budget that cut dozens of positions.
Now, Wake County Manager David Ellis is taking a more hopeful approach.
“The good news is the worst didn’t happen. COVID-19 didn’t reduce our revenues as we feared it would,” Ellis said.
“Home sales are still going like gangbusters, the demand for inspections and permits is up and people are making good use of online and curbside shopping, keeping our sales tax revenue strong,” he told the county commissioners during a virtual meeting Monday night.
Wake County’s $1.56 billion recommended budget proposes the same tax rate as this year: 60 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
The owner of a house with an appraised tax value of $350,000 would pay $2,100 in county property tax.
The proposed county budget is a nearly $100 million increase over the current year’s approved budget.
School funding
The Wake County Public School System would get $539.2 million, $11.3 million more in local money than it received for this fiscal year. Superintendent Cathy Moore had asked the county for $544.2 million.
WCPSS saw enrollment drop for the first time in 40 years, The News & Observer reported. But school leaders believe most students will return for in-person, daily instruction.
The proposed budget also adds money to plan for Smart Start Pre-K for 3-year-olds from low-income families.
The proposed budget also includes $29 million, a $4 million increase, for Wake Technical Community College.
Public safety
The recommended budget adds 16 positions to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office for drug investigations, collecting and managing evidence and transporting people to behavioral health facilities for treatment.
There’s also money to expand recruitment and outreach efforts.
The budget includes a new position in emergency management, two new ambulances and eight new EMTs and paramedics.
Ellis also recommends raising the fire tax rate over a penny to 10.27 cents per $100 valuation. The fire tax applies to residents who live in the unincorporated part of the county and the town of Wendell. Wake County leaders raised the fire tax rate last year.
“The reality is the cost of providing this service is becoming more expensive, and as municipalities in Wake County annex more and more of the unincorporated areas, the tax base for the fire tax special district is shrinking,” Ellis said.
Wake County employees
There was no pay raise for county employees in the last budget. To make up the difference this year, Ellis recommends all 4,200 employees get a 4% pay increase. Top performers — about 20% of the workforce — would get an additional 3% performance-based increase.
“These pay increases are critical to retaining our current employees and attracting new ones,” he said. “If we want to remain competitive in the marketplace, we have to pay our employees what they’re worth. Otherwise, we will lose top talent to other government agencies or other sectors that offer higher salaries and require a lighter workload.”
The proposed budget sets the county’s living wage at $17.33 per hour.
Wake County is also recommending eight new positions in human resources, 13 positions in tax administration, internal audit and county attorney’s office, among others, and a new diversity and inclusion director in the county manager’s office.
What’s next: A virtual public hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 17 and budget work sessions are planned for May 10 and May 24. The Wake County commissioners will likely vote on the budget at 5 p.m. June 7. People can comment on the budget virtually by visiting wakegov.com/budget.
