Durham County budget gives more to schools but still pays many workers under $15 an hour

Durham County’s new budget will give more money to the Durham Public Schools but will still pay hundreds of school workers less than $15 an hour.

The county commissioners approved the $675.6 million budget by a 3-2 vote on June 8. Staff had to rework the plan late in the budget process as the coronavirus shutdown ate into projected revenues.

Commissioners James Hill, Brenda Howerton and Ellen Reckhow voted for the budget.

Board Chair Wendy Jacobs and Commissioner Heidi Carter said they voted against it because it will leave 900 classified school employees — bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and teaching assistants — making less than $15 an hour. The budget only raises their pay to $14 per hour in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

In an interview Thursday, Jacobs said the budget does a lot of good things: gives schools more money, helps small businesses hurt by COVID-19, and adds or repurposes positions to make sure residents have adequate and nutritious food.

But the budget is a “moral document,” she said.

At a time when the nation is talking about racism and equity, Jacobs said she could not support a spending plan that leaves county workers, most of them people of color, making less than a living wage.

“How can we say we support the ‘Fight for $15’ and want private institutions to pay $15 if we’re not doing it ourselves?” she asked.

Howerton said the county did not reject the higher wage but wants the school system to use money from its fund balance to help make it happen. If the school system does not act by January, the county will revisit the issue.

“I have fought for the classified workers since I’ve been on the board,” Howerton said Thursday. “We voted to do half and ask the schools to do the other half.”

But Carter, who suggested taking money out of the county’s own fund balance or coronavirus funds, said the increase was already overdue.

“We can either fight back against the devastating impacts of racism in this country by taking concrete, deliberate action to make the necessary investments to improve the lives of People of Color, now, this year … or we can delay and ask Black people to wait, yet again,” she said in a statement.

County to discuss tax assistance program

The budget holds the tax rate at 71.22 cents per $100 valuation, meaning the owner of a $300,000 house will continue to pay $2,136.60 in county property tax. City residents pay an additional city property tax.

Carter asked for an update on what the county is doing to help low-income people and others having financial problems because of COVID-19.

Staff members will bring back a tax-assistance program for the board to discuss in July, Jacobs said

“This is a priority for all of us,” she said, adding that she hopes the city of Durham will join the county in the program.

The fiscal 2020-21 budget is roughly $17.4 million more than the previous county budget, and is slightly less than the $675.9 million that County Manager Wendell M. Davis had recommended, according to a news release.

The general fund, which pays for most of Durham County’s day-to-day activities and services is $467 million.

Durham Public Schools funding up, Sheriff’s Office down

The budget gives the school system more money, in part, by reducing funding for the Sheriff’s Office and some other county departments.

It provides nearly $153.2 million for Durham Public Schools, a $7.2 million increase, for a per pupil amount of $3,694, according to a county news release.

Part of that increase is an additional $2 million for annual DPS capital support, the release stated. An additional $5.44 million is budgeted under the Department of Public Health and the Sheriff’s Office to fund school nurses and 27 school resource officers.

But Sheriff Clarence Birkhead lost eight full-time positions, reducing his staffing from 493 to 485 full-time equivalents in the coming year, budget director Keith Lane said in an email Thursday.

The sheriff had sought to reclassify 12 vacant positions. By decreasing the jail population and working with the Criminal Justice Resource Center and court system, those positions are no longer all needed, Lane wrote. So the county reclassified four positions, and the other eight were cut and the spending rerouted to other county needs.

Between 2007 and 2018, the average annual jail population at the Durham County Detention Center fell from 629 to 498.

The jail population has continued to fall amid a push for deincarceration and during the coronavirus pandemic, in which nine detention officers have been infected and one has died. The average daily jail population dropped from 393 in June to 262 so far in June.

Staff writer Virginia Bridges contributed to this report.

This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 3:15 PM.