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County, City Officials Explain Budget's Business Benefits

By Christina Haley O'Neal, posted Jun 14, 2018
New Hanover County and city of Wilmington officials say that portions of the budgets for the upcoming fiscal year will have an impact on local businesses.

The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on June 4 adopted the county's $333 million budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year. That budget includes a 1.5-cent cut in the property tax rate. The new tax rate is 55.5 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The tax cut has been cited by Board of Commissioners Chairman Woody White as a benefit not only to local residents who pay taxes, but also tax-paying businesses in the county.

“That was our No. 1 priority after we assured ourselves that we could meet the needs of the public schools and public safety,” White said of the tax cut. “But the cumulative effect of the tax cuts over the course of two years is almost $10 million that remains in the local economy, in the private checking accounts of people and business.”

This is the second year in a row the county has cut the tax rate.

“The cumulative effect of having $10 million more in our local economy is meaningful and we hope that we can continue that trend for a third year, next year. Time will tell,” White said.

County officials said in a news release Thursday that the adopted budget advances the priorities set in the county’s new strategic plan commissioners approved in January. The strategic plan for the years 2018-23 focuses on three areas: growth and economic development, education and workforce, and public health and safety.

The budget also funds more than $1.6 million in strategic economic development initiatives that will encourage private investment, bring more diverse and higher-wage jobs, and enhance quality of life, county officials said in the release. This is part of the county’s objective in intelligent growth and economic development.

"On a more specific basis, I think you can certainly cite year two and year three of [the U.S.] 421 water-sewer project that we are in now. We still are on time and ahead of budget, and that's going to be a tremendous boon for our industrial corridor. And on a more granular level, we've upgraded software for our permitting process ... and that just helps us be even easier to do business with for those folks seeking a permit and so forth," White said.

The county has set aside $525,000 for the U.S. 421 water and sewer project. Another $250,000 in the budget has been designated for the town of Wrightsville Beach, among other funding, including money to local economic development groups.

Though a smaller portion of the budget, White said the assistance the county is giving to the town of Wrightsville Beach to help revitalize some of its downtown area and add value for the tourism the beach already attracts to the county. The budget specifically cites the $250,000 in funds are going to improvements to Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier.

"We think that will help them bring some small businesses around there, certainly will help add to their tax base and their beautification project," he said of the funding for Wrightsville Beach.

Other initiatives cited by the county in its adopted budget release include $108.7 million to support public schools, an increase of 25 percent over the past five years; nearly $1 million for additional resources for school safety and mental health; $1.2 million to address the opioid crisis; and a market and merit salary increase for eligible employees. The budget also implements a living wage standard so that full-time employees will earn a minimum of $31,200 per year, or no less than $15 an hour for authorized, part-time standard-hour employees.

Of the educational funding, White said, “We have set a goal to meet or exceed all of our peer counties across the state in retaining and recruiting the best teachers and in producing the best students … so all of the innovations that you're seeing here on a local level in our education system go directly to the quality of student that we are turning out, that is either entering a four-year traditional college or going to a community college or using the vocational track to go directly into the workforce.”

White said, "All in all, we think this budget does an awful lot of things, not the least of which is support business and job growth."
 

City budget


While the county has finalized its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the city’s $170-million recommended budget for 2018-19 FY will go before Wilmington City Council on June 19. That budget includes a property tax increase.

The current rate is 48.34 cents, said Laura Mortell, budget and research director with the city. The first presentation of the recommended property tax rate was at 48.84 cents, a 0.5-cent increase. But in discussions with council during its first budget reading, Mortell said, that rate changed to 49.84 cents, a 1.5 cent increase, Mortell said.

With the 1.5 cent increase, a median house value of $220,000 would see an annual increase of $33 and a monthly increase of $2.75, she said. 

The city cites several highlights to its multi-million-dollar budget, which include continued funding for its 2014 voter-approved Transportation Bond and 2016 voter-approved Parks Bond projects; five-year Infrastructure Improvement Plan; and its portion of the ongoing River Place development project in downtown Wilmington.

The funding will also provide more than $32.7 million in savings for emergencies, increases funding for affordable housing and expands funding for at-risk youth programs, according to the city.

Mortell said that the property tax rate increase is focusing on aspects of its strategic plan.

The increase is due to a focus on the city’s infrastructure, she said. With that increase, this is the first year the city has put into place a program that seeks to maintain the downtown riverwalk.

“We have put so much money and time and effort into the riverwalk and the riverwalk has drawn people to our community .... to walk along the river, to enjoy the restaurants and the businesses,” Mortell said. “Things that aren't huge capital projects but that need to continue to be maintained. So this is the first year that we've put an ongoing program that we'll be able to address that at any point in time.”

The city has also increased its tree trimmers, increasing crews for maintenance work and in the event of a hurricane. It also increases crews for mowing, which moves the period of mowing from every 21 days to 14 days in certain high-visible areas like Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, "to ensure that people coming in are seeing a really great place to come into and they're not seeing kind of a weeded area that's unkempt,” she said.

It also provides a little bit of funding for a city alleyways program and brick streets program, which focuses on downtown areas. While serving residents, these items both improve the city’s appeal to tourists and as a place to do business, she said.

But one of the most important things that Mortell believes the budget does is realign the city’s compensation scale to market scale, she said.

“That's going to help everyone also in the city because we're going to have less turnover ... and when you have less turnover, you have more people who have worked with the city longer, who have more knowledge of what type of services we need to provide to both residents and businesses,” Mortell said. “The biggest resource in cities [is] our employees. You can't go anywhere or do anything without them, and so council validated the importance of that and we were able to stick their scales to market.”

The budget also provides funding for its civic partners, including Wilmington Downtown Inc. and Wilmington Business Development, as well as its cultural and recreational agencies at more than $446,000. The city has also slated $612,455 for community agencies, such as StepUp Wilmington and the Blue Ribbon Commission.

“So with the economic partners ... we want to make sure that we get the biggest bang for our citizens' buck, if you will. And again, you kind of go to those that you know are going to do the biggest things. So, Wilmington Business Development and Wilmington Downtown Inc., you know they go out and they recruit, they do our economic development," Mortell said.

There are also economic incentives, which total $278,224, for several businesses in the city. They include National Gypsum, which is budgeted for $46,000, and Pharmaceutical Product Development. There are miscellaneous incentives at $125,000 for recruitment, she said.

"It's essentially for setting us up to be able to work with a potential company that comes to us in FY 19,” Mortell said. “Hopefully, setting us up for success to bring a company that will provide jobs that are needed in the city … we're hoping that that helps us.”
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