Leland residents voice concerns about tax increase during Special Town Council meeting

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — At Thursday’s Special Council meeting, about 50 Leland residents voiced their concerns about the town’s proposed tax rate increase.

The meeting gave residents one last chance to speak out against the rate increase.

The 17% increase would bring the tax rate to 27 cents per $100 of property valuation, an increase Angelo Guarascio said doesn’t make sense.

“I got a 3.5% increase on my disability this year and you want a 17% tax increase,” Guarascio said. “Does that make any sense to anybody? It certainly doesn’t to me, okay. You’ve annexed me into the city and you’ve given me literally nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Some residents said the council’s budget is part of an effort to make Leland into a city, while they would prefer to keep it as a town.

But resident Matthew Brennan said if that’s the case, the town needs to increase the budget for certain services to keep pace with the growth.

“This community is booming, it’s gonna grow,’ Brennan said. “It’s gonna continue to grow, maybe faster than some would like. The infrastructure needs to grow, the police and fire undoubtedly needs to grow.”

Leland council member Bill McHugh said he understands people’s concerns, but the town has to plan for the anticipated growth.

“What we’re doing here is we’re trying to look toward the future in Leland,” McHugh said. “We know what’s coming, we know how much construction is going to continue to go on, how much growth is going to continue to go on and we want to be as ahead of it as we can because if you fall behind, you will never catch up.”

The town council will vote on the proposed $50 million budget on Thursday, May 16th.