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Chapel Hill Community,
Last night, Town Council held another work session on next year’s Town budget. Right now, we are working to get a handle on the changing landscape of federal funding and to gauge the impacts of Orange County’s recent property tax revaluation. Knowing that many in our community have questions, I want to take this opportunity to make sure everyone is in the loop on the decisions we face and how you can weigh in.
Orange County Property Tax Revaluation
At our work session last evening, the Orange County Tax Assessor’s office gave a presentation on the tax revaluations. Hopefully many of you have had the opportunity to attend one of the county’s outreach sessions to learn about the revaluation process. As a board, the Town Council was interested in learning more about how the revaluation will impact local property owners. Three important things we learned:
- Overall, property valuations in Chapel Hill increased by 46%.
- The residential tax base increased more quickly than the commercial tax base (53.4% versus 30.2%), which means that residential properties will experience higher percentage increases than offices or apartments.
- As a result of this rebalancing, even at the revenue-neutral rate, some residential property owners will see an increase in their taxes.
The county has posted helpful information on their website and their staff is available to answer questions or assist with appeals by e-mail, phone, or in person.
Budget and Tax Rate Scenarios
For the second half of our work session, Council and staff walked through a series of five illustrative scenarios aimed at helping us think through options and trade-offs in terms of the goals we want to focus on and how we get there. As is the case in these types of exercises, the scenarios ranged from the status quo to a more ambitious goal. This was the first time we saw a lot of data, and we are still exploring the implications on Town services and on the people who live and work here.
At this time, the Interim Town Manager and her team have taken initial measures to keep our current financial circumstances stable. And, they have been working on identifying ways to save money, and improve efficiency across the organization. Even so, it’s likely that we will need to raise people’s taxes next year in order to continue providing high-quality Town services, pay our employees fairly, and maintain Town facilities.
These are important decisions for all of us, and we want to make sure everyone is aware of these discussions and has an opportunity to weigh in. Ways that you can do this are:
While there will be some hard decisions ahead, I am thankful to my colleagues on Town Council and to our Interim Manager and Town staff for working diligently to make the best decisions for our town. The good news is that we continue to be in sound financial shape and are ready to help those in our community who are being impacted by national events - which I know is important to all of us.
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.
Sincerely,
Mayor Jess
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