In budget, ‘Not everyone gets everything they want’

SMITHFIELD — Johnston’s County Commissioners like to be unanimous when passing a budget. A 4-3 or even a 6-1 vote won’t do.

That no doubt requires compromise, and this year might have required more than most. In passing a budget 7-0 on June 17, commissioners peppered their discussion with talk of give-and-take.

“It is a compromise in many areas,” said Commissioner Patrick Harris, who shoulders the burden of shepherding the budget from draft to finished product. “Not everyone gets everything they want,” he said.

Harris was talking about commissioners, but he could have just as easily been referring to Johnston’s public schools and one of its charters.

The public schools had sought $111.8 million for operations, up 26% from the year before, and $28.8 million for capital outlay, up from $6 million. They got $104 million and $3.5 million, respectively.

Still, the dollar amount for operations was significant, said Commissioner Butch Lawter, the board’s chairman. “They didn’t get exactly what they asked for,” he said. “But I think we’re looking at close to an 18% increase there.”

“So still significant,” Lawter said of the total dollars, “but still a lot of needs.”

Neuse Charter School had sought $8 million to help it build a classroom building. It received nothing, at least not yet. Lawter said that was a discussion for another day.

While giving the public schools a double-digit increase for operations, the budget also lowers the county’s property tax rate by 2 cents — from 69 cents to 67 cents per $100 valuation. And it awards dollars to several nonprofits, although some received less than what they had sought and some got nothing.

“As Commissioner Harris noted early on, there are a lot of compromises in here,” Commissioner Ted Godwin said.

Had this been “a line item budget vote, there were several things in here that I was not in favor of,” he added. “And there are things in here that probably other members of the board were not in favor of.

“But it’s like he said. We don’t always get what we want.”

Harris echoed Godwin. “There are parts of the budget that I don’t really care for,” he said. “But for the good of the whole, we have to adopt a budget and move forward. I think we’ve done that.”

“Our fellow commissioners, we agree to disagree,” Harris added. “We disagree again. But we always get back to a point we can agree on something and move forward with it. And to me, that’s important.”

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