May 25, 2008

This week’s meetings were relatively light with the exception of a work session on the town budget.

Monday I had the privilege of playing the Augusta National Golf course (home of the Masters Golf Tournament). I have played this course every year as part of their thank you for working the tournament (I have done this for the last 30 years). My only notable moment was hitting the pin on the third hole of the par three course. I guess an almost hole-in-one is better than nothing. Other than that, my round was very uneventful and I am glad I am a tennis player. ;-)

I returned from Augusta Monday night but not in time to make the monthly mayors meeting. But I did contact Mayor Ronnie Williams (the host) and he said there was nothing significant in the presentation that I haven’t heard before.

Tuesday’s first meeting was with staff about potential areas of involuntary annexation. There were 195 parcels identified but at this point I cannot support any residential involuntary annexation. The estimated property tax revenue from these parcels is roughly $300,000 annually. I am not sure how the rest of the council feels about this issue or if this issue will come forward for a vote in the near future.

Tuesday evening was our second work session this year’s budget. We did finally define the revenue neutral tax rate in Cary to be 33 cents per $100 of property value. This means the town will roughly receive the same amount of revenue with this tax rate as it did with the 42 cents tax rate before the property re-evaluation. This does not necessarily mean that 33 cents will be the tax rate. That has yet to be determined. We also made a recommendation on the utility rate. Because of the new Western Wake Water Treatment facility, which will cost Cary taxpayers in excess of $300 million dollars, our utility rate was forecasted to increase by over 18% in fiscal year 2013. To avoid this dramatic increase we are recommending an estimated 5% increase through 2013 as a way of leveling the spike.

There were several scenarios submitted by staff at the budget work session regarding our forecasted tax rate to enable us to meet commitments made by previous councils. All of them had tax rates increasing starting next year. These commitments are capital improvement projects requiring debt. If our debt service reaches 15% of our operating costs then we are in danger of losing our AAA bond rating. This means we will pay more in interest for debt which in turn increases costs even more. This is the predicament that I pointed out in last fall’s election. The choices are limited in how to address this problem. We can set our tax rate higher to meet commitments or cut future commitments like road projects. In my humble opinion cutting road projects creates more problems than it solves (lower standards, higher costs to do them in the future, etc). It is almost like the old advertisement from years ago, “you can pay me now or pay me later.” And of course the later payment is much more. So it will be very interesting to see if council has the political will to meet prior commitments or to cut future projects. Our next budget work session is scheduled for the first week in June.

Wednesday’s most significant meeting was a combination of Metropolitan Planning Organizations from the Durham-Chapel Hill area and from the Raleigh-Cary area. In this meeting we received the formal presentation from STAC (Special Transportation Advisory Committee). This 29 member committee, who met for over a year, presented their findings on multi-modal transportation options and how to pay for them. In summary, they recommend expanding and coordinating bus services and begin to implement and plan light rail. Their proposed revenue sources included a ½ cents sales tax increase.

Wednesday evening I attended the Duran Duran concert at Regency Amphitheater which was fantastic. Rock concerts, by nature, generate noise complaints and this was no different. Fortunately, there were only a couple of serious complaints. It is important to note that all weekday concerts must end by 10 PM and noise levels must be at a maximum of 92 decibels. This concert ended on time but exceeded the decibel level a few times and the promoter was fined.

Being a holiday week we did not have a council meeting on Thursday (it will be next Thursday instead). So I was able to play softball on my work team which was fun. I was pleased to get two hits after not having swung a bat for a year. The rest of the week was  spent with my family.

One event I am thinking about next week is my interview with MONEY magazine about Cary being one of the best places to live. Apparently, what I say will have a lot to do with Cary making the list. Nothing like a little pressure. ;-)

That’s about all there is to report on for this week so I’ll close for now and hopefully post again by Sunday, June 1st.