County approves budget for next fiscal year

The Wake County Board of Commissioners approved next year’s $2 billion budget during its meeting Monday night.

The budget, which includes $9 million more for area schools than was allocated in the initial proposed budget, was approved unanimously, and will fund, among other things, new jobs, more housing, and numerous county-wide projects.

“It proved difficult to establish a budget for next year that would effectively meet the need to fund all the county’s services as well as the needs of the school system and all of our other partners,” Vice Chair Susan Evans said.

The sentiment that Evans keyed on was echoed by others on the board as well; that this budget season was made especially challenging by the county’s growing population, a more urgent need for municipal services to accommodate new residents, and high housing prices as established by this year’s property revaluation.

The adopted budget includes a tax increase of just under five cents per $100 of assessed property value. While the county could have imposed a revenue neutral tax rate of 46.36 cents, it instead opted to adopt a tax rate of 51.35 cents per $100 of property value.

The additional revenue will fund a host of items that board members hope will bolster the quality of the county’s services, and the quality of life for area residents.

An additional $4.5 million will be spent to create more affordable housing throughout the county. County officials say the extra funding will be vital toward achieving its goal of providing 2,500 affordable housing units by 2029.

Additionally, the county will spend $3 million more next year to bolster WakeBrook, a local behavioral health crisis response facility that provides inpatient treatment options for county residents.

“We heard from a lot of constituents who had lots of different opinions on how their tax money can best be spent,” Commissioner Cheryl Stallings said. “And I know we tried to synthesize all of those opinions in creating this budget.”

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