City Council eyes tax increase

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)– City council won’t vote on the budget until the middle of June. Until then they’ll continue to hammer out specifics.

On the table Tuesday, Wilmington’s City Council is pounding out the 2014-15 budget.

“So you have the balancing act of, we want to do more things, but we don’t have any more money,’ said Malissa Talbert, spokesperson for the City of Wilmington, “what are we going to do we don’t want to cut services either.”

The answer is raising your taxes. For the average homeowner a 1-cent property tax increase on a $200-thousand home would work out to an increase of about $20 bucks per year.

The plan for that money though also has a big impact.

“It’s not gonna (sic) fund everything,” said Talbert, “but it will help with the enhancements that we’ve talked about with the public safety and intervention a 1-cent tax increase.”

An increase that will fund things like roads and sidewalks, keep wages competitive for city employees including police and fire and maintain core services for the city.

“Virtually every service we provide in the city is dependent on good people,” Talbert said.

Taxes aren’t the only increases being eyed; water increases are on the horizon too up 6 percent. Solid waste planned to go up 6 percent as well.

Now there are several more steps until budget approval, including a public hearing on May 20th, and a final work session on May 30th.

A final vote is set for June 17th.