Tax Increases
Elon Town Manager Rich Roedner recommended increases to property taxes, water and sewage fees, and trash bin fees at the April 8 Elon Town Council meeting.
Roedner said his proposed budget was less conservative than he would typically suggest and there’s less buffer room if the town brings in less tax revenue than projected. Elon’s single largest source of revenue is its 7% sales tax, which is harder to predict than other tax types.
Mayor Emily Sharpe said she would be more comfortable with a property-tax-based revenue budget in place of a sales-tax-based budget.
“We need to eventually get to where those are flipped,” Sharpe said. “There's way too much variability in that sales tax number where there isn't that variability in a real estate tax number.”
Roedner said he originally wanted to propose a 2-cent increase to property taxes. However, after discussion with the Budget Liaison Committee, he reduced his proposal to a 1.5-cent increase.
“What that means for a homeowner: $100,000 home, about $15 per year,” Roedner said. “$400,000 home, about $60 per year.”
For trash bin fees, Roedner proposed an increase in collection costs from $19 to $19.50. He said this increase would be better than the alternative of more property tax increases.
“That's when you look at putting the fee on something that somebody has an individual control over, as opposed to raising their property taxes,” Roedner said.
Water and sewage is more complicated than the other increases because, unlike trash pickup, the town of Elon doesn’t control its own water. Instead, it pays the city of Burlington for water, which raised its rates 5% this year.
To account for Burlington’s rate increase and for employee reclassification, Roedner recommended a 7% increase in water and sewage fees.
Sharpe said that while the increase could be considered high, it was ultimately necessary.
“It sucks that costs have gone up, but costs have gone up for individuals and costs have gone up for the town,” Sharpe said.
In addition to discussing the budget, the town council passed a motion to join the North Carolina Health Insurance Pool. Roedner said the pool, which consists of other towns in the state, is meant to create more stable healthcare coverage and rates for town employees.
Beyond the healthcare benefits, Roedner said joining the pool also freed up some money in the budget, reducing necessary property tax increases.
“We were able to save that fund money on health insurance, which brought a proposed increase in their tax rate to the cent and a half,” Roedner said.
The council will now consider modifications to the budget, which the town will be able to comment on at a public budget hearing at 6 p.m. May 13.
Main Street Champions
Eddie and Justin Duszlak were recognized as “Main Street Champions” at the April 8 town council meeting.
North Carolina Main Street is the state arm of Main Street America and focuses on economic development of historic downtown districts in municipalities with less than 50,000 people. As part of their participation in the Main Street program, Elon selects a “Main Street Champion” each year — in this case, the Duszlaks.
The Duszlaks were recognized for their efforts to renovate a 1891 historic building, which now serves as the Town Hall Annex building.
The next town council meeting will be held at 6 p.m. April 28.