May 2, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The town’s taxable property rose from $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion in a year, growth which Williams said does allow the town to continue expanding its services and personnel while keeping taxes and rates steady.

            There will be a public hearing about the budget at the town board’s regular meeting at 7 p.m. on May 15, after which the board will decide on work sessions about the proposed budget. The commissioners can change priorities, cut or increase items and change the tax rate. They may, for instance, decide to begin paving unpaved streets, an item Williams did not include. The budget must be adopted by June 30.

            The lack of increase in Williams’ proposed budget means the independent Wake Forest Fire Department would receive 10 cents on the tax rate – just over $2 million – rather than the $2.9 million Fire Chief Jerry Swift has requested to hire 21 full-time personnel and to purchase a $600,000 pumper/ladder truck for the planned Forestville Road fire station.

            To fully fund the fire department’s request this year would add 4 cents to the tax rate. The department will certainly receive more than the $2 million because the town “trues up” the 10-cent allocation at the end of the year based on the end-of-year property valuation.

            Williams said it was “a tough budget,” partly because of the requests from outside agencies such as the fire department.

            “I thought long and hard about what they requested.” Williams said the county-wide property revaluation next year, when property values traditionally rise, should give the town an opportunity to re-address the fire department’s needs.

            Also, he said, “The county is pretty much set and not going to give them more than ten cents. We, the town, the fire department, the county and other towns need to sit down and try to work out what’s the best and most efficient way to provide fire service.”

            The locations for the new fire stations are at the town’s periphery. “Some locations will be closer to other people’s fire districts than their [own] fire stations,” Williams said. “You [the commissioners] just annexed one on Forestville Road. Rolesville’s fire district is right across the street.

            “The question is how involved would Rolesville become in paying for the station.”

            Williams said the town has a year to work out these questions before revaluation.

            He also said he had included money for a study about an impact fee for the fire department’s capital needs in the 2007-2008 budget and would sign a contract for that on July 2.

            Chief Swift has requested $4.3 million over the next three fiscal years to build and equip three stations. One will be on Forestville Road, where he plans to use the existing house as a station and add a metal shed for the truck. The other two will be somewhere along Wait Avenue (N.C. 98 east of town) and somewhere along Capital Boulevard on the west side of town. Swift has talked about the need for a sixth station to the north.

            For the fifteenth year, Williams proposes to keep the electric rate steady although he warned in his budget summary “the electric fund is at a critical junction” because the town has invested in improvements that return their benefits over time.

            To keep the electric fund – which is operated like a business and separately from the rest of town finance – there will be no transfer of funds from the electric fund to the general fund and he reduced the charges for accounting and other general fund expenses.

            Actually, he is hoping for a hot summer with a lot of air-conditioner use. “The revenue stream in the Electric Fund is very dependent on weather. Mild weather in the summer and winter have a major impact on reducing revenue.”

            Williams did not include any increase in the tax on the downtown municipal service district because “The DRC (Downtown Revitalization Corporation) hasn’t come back with a definitive list of what they want to use the money for.” Williams did include $26,700 for the wayfinding signs the DRC hopes to begin placing this year to help people get to downtown.

            The budget includes $110,000 for the Wake Forest College Birthplace to be paid at the end of the calendar year after the birthplace society demonstrates what it has raised.

            The budget also includes $32,000 for the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce its economic development activities, $3,000 for the Fourth of July Committee, $7,500 for the Wake Forest Boys and Girls Club, and $3,000 for the county’s rural transportation program, TRACS.

            Williams proposes 10 new town employees and said he turned down a number of others to hold down expenses and because of a lack of office space.

            The new positions include five in the police department: two detectives, two traffic officers and an administrative assistant at the substation on South Main Street. Other new positions would be an assistant for the human resources department, an additional planner, two code enforcement officers, and a supervisor in the street department.

            Part of the problem with this year’s budget was the significant increase in the debt service by close to a million dollars because the town has sold parks and street bonds.