County seeks cut in schools budget

RALEIGH -- The Wake commissioners voted 5-2 Monday to add the county's school system to the list of agencies asked to make voluntary spending cuts to help cover a share of a projected $17 million budget shortfall.

If the Wake school board refuses to cut $5.7 million as requested the county board could mandate the 1.8 percent cut.

Whether to force the school system, which is the state's largest, to make reductions will be discussed at the commissioners' next meeting, a work session Dec. 8.

The vote Monday sets the stage for a battle with the Wake school board. A majority of its members have said they will resist budget cuts at the level suggested by County Manager David Cooke.

But a majority of the commissioners said that amid a national recession and declining sales tax revenues it is appropriate to ask the schools to share in the pain. Under the 2009 budget commissioners approved in June, the system is set to receive $316 million in county funding.

"We are in an economic crisis," Commissioner Joe Bryan said. "Everyone needs to participate in the solution."

Before the vote, Superintendent Del Burns said the school system already faces $5.5 million in mandated reductions in its state funding, which will require hiring freezes and cuts to money for classroom supplies. He said further cuts in county funding could result in more severe measures, though he stopped short of saying they would include staff layoffs.

All county departments, including the sheriff's department and emergency services, will be asked to make cuts at or above the level asked of the schools Monday. Cooke, the county manager, has asked department heads to suggest spending reductions of 4 percent.

Wake Technical Community College and nonprofit agencies that get county grants will also be asked to make 1.8 percent reductions -- the same percentage Cooke suggested for the school system. Stephen C. Scott, Wake Tech president, has agreed to make the cuts, Cooke said.

School board member Horace Tart said Monday that his board would be willing to give back a smaller amount, pointing to $2.8 million that isn't being spent because student enrollment came in less than expected. The commissioners have already withheld an additional $3 million from schools because student population growth fell short of projections.

"The school board is doing what we can to work with county commissioners to cut where we can to help with this situation," Tart said.

Commissioners Betty Lou Ward and Stan Norwalk, both Democrats, voted against the measure asking the schools to make voluntary reductions.

"There are a litany of needs out there and you try to put a human face, a child's face, on each one," Ward said.

Norwalk, a newly elected commissioner who took his oath of office at the start of Monday's meeting, said that instead of across-the-board cuts he would prefer to cut some departments more deeply than others.

Later in the meeting, the board split 4-3 along party lines to buy 88 acres in Cary for $8.8 million, or $100,000 per acre, for a proposed high school.

That price drew sharp criticism from the board's three Republicans, who are now in the minority. Commissioner Paul Coble pointed out that the school system was spending far more per acre than what a developer had paid for a neighboring parcel two years ago.

"We're the only one's paying top dollar when everyone else is paying less," Coble said.