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If you have a project you think the Town
of Wake Forest should fund or any kind
of suggestion about the town’s budget
for the next fiscal year, go to town
hall Tuesday night, April 18, for the
public hearing about the 2006-2007
budget.
Town Manager Mark Williams
and his staff are assembling the budget
now, but it will not be ready for the
town board and the public until some
time in May. The commissioners will
discuss it in June, and it must be
adopted by June 30.
Last year, the commissioners
agreed to provide over $1.5 million to
outside agencies, with the bulk of that,
$1.4 million, going to the Wake Forest
Fire Department. The fire department, a
separate incorporated nonprofit
organization, receives 10 cents of the
54-cent town property tax. That amount
will rise in future years because the
commissioners have agreed to fund the
construction and operation of the third
fire station.
Last year the commissioners
also agreed to provide funds to eight
other organizations: Hopeline, $500;
Resources for Seniors, $2,500;
Southlight, $15,000; Wake Forest Chamber
of Commerce, $36,000; Fourth of July,
$3,000; Downtown Revitalization
Corporation, $45,000; Kids Voting,
$1,000; and United Arts Council,
$14,605.
The budget consists of two
separate funds: the general fund which
gets its money from property, franchise
and sales taxes as well as the various
town fees, and the electric fund which
gets its money from the sale of
electricity and associated fees. Until
2005-2006, the water and sewer fund was
the town’s third separate fund. Now all
water and sewer rates and fees are paid
to Raleigh to repay the estimated $19
million cost of merger.
Last year, the general fund
revenues were $17.3 million, and
electric fund revenues were $15.6
million. The electric fund transferred
$225,000 to the general fund in lieu of
the franchise tax it would have paid as
a corporation like Progress Energy.
Total utility franchise taxes in
2005-2006 were $507,750, not including
the amount from the electric fund.
The largest expenditures for
2005-2006 from the general fund were
public safety (police and fire at 32.6
percent) and public works at 26.9
percent. The next largest was parks and
recreation at 11.8 percent.
From the electric fund, over
half the expenditure, 58.3 percent, was
for the purchase of power. Personnel
cost 13.1 percent, capital outlay 11.6
percent, and operating costs were 11.2
percent.
Last year’s total budget,
including the general fund, the electric
fund and the $29,500 from the downtown
municipal service district, was $33
million. |
