News / Upcoming Events
Originally published in the Local & State section of the Fayetteville Observer
Fayetteville council hears pleas for lower taxes
By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer
Larry Barner rattled off a long list of local taxes
and fees.
The last thing homeowners need, the 74-year-old told the Fayetteville City
Council on Tuesday night, is a higher property tax bill. The jobless rate
is up, and the number of people on food stamps is growing, he said. He urged
the council to cut taxes. “I don’t want anybody to lose their
home,” Barner said. He was one of six people who spoke Tuesday about
the proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
The council has scheduled another meeting June 1 to continue hashing out
the budget details and trying to reach a consensus on the new tax rate,
which is now 53 cents for every $100 in property value. “We appreciate
your input,” Mayor Tony Chavonne told the audience. “The council
is taking this budget very seriously.”
City Manager Dale Iman has recommended lowering the rate to 47.5 cents,
a level that would help compensate for the average Fayetteville home assessment
that rose nearly 30 percent during countywide revaluation this year. Still,
even at that rate, the tax bill for the average city homeowner would climb
by $142 a year. Most council members say they want to cut the rate further,
to about 45 cents — the rate the city has estimated would yield the
normal growth in tax revenue this year if there had been no property revaluation.
Iman’s recommended budget for the general fund, which pays for most
services, is $140.9 million, or a 4.8 percent increase over last year’s
budget. He wants to boost spending on police, fire and the bus system. The
council would have to cut about $3 million to reduce taxes to 45 cents.
Barner, who is retired from the military and lives in the Bonnie Doone neighborhood,
said the number of people unemployed and the number of individuals on food
stamps are rising. The city should live within its means, he said.
Wade
Fowler, who lives in a west Fayetteville neighborhood that was annexed in
2005, said people work hard to pay their taxes. Without offering any examples,
he said the city should consider which services are no longer needed that
could be cut.
“It seems like we are in tough times right now,” he said.
Another resident, Wendy Michener, said the council members are up for re-election this year and that higher taxes could be political suicide. However, they should resist the urge to slash taxes to a level where services can’t meet the needs of a growing city, she said.
Roderick McKeithan, a retired Fayetteville firefighter, said he had a problem
with the discrepancy in proposed pay raises for city employees. Police officers’
paychecks would rise by an average of 4.8 percent, whereas other employees,
including firefighters, would get up to 2 percent increases based on their
annual evaluations. McKeithan said firefighters should get the same pay
increases as police officers.
Anthony Castillo, a Fayetteville resident, said he was glad Iman has proposed
increasing the transit budget to expand bus service later into the evenings
on the three busiest routes. He also was glad to see that a consultant had
recommended the eventual goal of offering Sunday bus service — a change
that would not be funded in the coming budget year.
Staff writer Andrew Barksdale can be reached at barksdalea@fayobserver.com
or 486-3565.
