Wilmington City Council votes in favor of balanced budget, lower tax rate

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — At its regular meeting on Tuesday evening, Wilmington City Council approved the first reading of the budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Property taxes will be lowered from $0.4984 per $100 assessed valuation of taxable property to $0.3808 per $100 valuation, nearly a 12 cent decrease.

$3.5 million will go toward street rehabilitation and another $3.5 million will go toward the Rail Realignment project.

Mayor Bill Saffo says the budget also leaves funds for the city in case of emergencies.

“It’s a balanced budget, it’s about $29 million in our savings account, making certain that if we do have a hurricane or any kind of natural disaster, we can take care of it,” Saffo said. “It puts $5.2 million in affordable housing, one of the things that we’ve heard a lot from the citizens, several million dollars in road repaving, obviously our roads took a severe beating from Hurricane Florence.”

The budget also includes a 25 percent increase to stipends for Mayor Saffo and councilmembers for work-related travel.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers for each department:

GENERAL FUND APPROPRIATIONS
General Government $31,401,692
Cultural & Recreational $10,601,781
Public Safety $57,509,783
Transportation $6,714,132
Transit System $1,534,358
Operating Transfers $19,363,811
TOTAL APPROPRIATIONS: $127,125,557

REVENUES
Property Taxes $66,782,516
Local Sales Taxes $32,485,457
Licenses, Fees, and Permits $829,000
Intergovernmental Revenues $15,095,216
Charges for Current Services $2,677,664
Fines and Forfeitures $94,500
Interest Earnings $40,000
Other Revenue $649,369
Appropriated Fund Balance $8,471,835
TOTAL REVENUES: $127,125,557

You can read more about the budget here.