Orange commissioners OK $183 million budget

CHAPEL HILL -- The Orange County Commissioners approved a $183 million budget Tuesday, setting a property tax rate of a little less than $1. They also approved last-minute changes that added two sheriff's deputies, and kept a volunteer coordinator in the Health Department.

The commissioners had struggled in recent weeks to trim $5 million from the proposed budget to keep the tax rate at less than $1 per $100 in assessed property values.

The rate they approved unanimously Tuesday set the property tax rate at 99.8 cents, but that doesn't include fire district taxes, municipal taxes or the special Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools district tax. The rate is an increase of 4.8 cents over the current year.

Education funding in Orange now accounts for 49.3 percent of the budget.

As part of budget cuts, 80 percent of which came from county programs and 20 percent from schools, the commissioners decided to delay opening the West Ten Soccer center in Efland until August 2009, and keep playing fields closed at the new Northern Park until April 2009.

Commissioner Mike Nelson said he wanted changes in the way the county puts the budget together, saying some ideas that board members developed at a retreat didn't make it into consideration.

He mentioned setting aside some money to make buildings more energy efficient and cheaper to operate in the long run.

"We didn't have the opportunity to come back and talk about things like that," Nelson said, saying he considered voting against the budget because the final proposal had arrived too late for him to read completely.

The county is adding the equivalent of about 28.5 full-time positions, including all six new deputies requested by the sheriff.

Commissioners earlier had approved only four deputies. The sheriff's office decided to forgo purchasing $121,000 in vehicles in exchange for the manpower.

The Health Department decided to trade an administrative assistant position and move some money around to keep its volunteer coordinator, who oversees the county's Public Health Reserve volunteers and volunteer emergency response teams.

Partial grant-funding for the position is ending, and the board had decided to cut the position rather than fund it fully.