Vehicle tax to rise if Raleigh budget is OK’d (News and Observer)
RALEIGH Motorists living in Raleigh could see a $5 jump in their annual vehicle tax for each car, truck or SUV they own if the City Council agrees with the proposed budget for next year presented Tuesday by Raleigh City Manager J. Russell Allen.
Allen’s $620.4 million budget for the 2010 fiscal year beginning July 1 doesn’t include a property tax increase or any layoffs of city staff. It does factor in the elimination of 24 vacant positions, mostly from the city’s solid waste and public works departments, and delays replacing city vehicles, including two fire engines and 46 police cars, according tocity budget documents.
The proposed budget is 11.1 percent less than the city budget this year.
Water rates are also expected to rise about 9 percent this summer. Successful consumer conservation efforts and an increase in debt payments for expanding the city water-and-sewer system have left the system that serves Raleigh and several surrounding communities struggling to stay in the black.
The prolonged recession and a drop in sales and property tax revenues have left Triangle communities, including Raleigh, scrambling to find ways to cover their bottom lines. The city’s general fund was facing a $7.5 million shortfall for the next fiscal year, mostly from a significant drop in sales tax revenue.
To cover that gap, Allen told the council he had to trim in several places, including cutting by 10 percent money earmarked for arts programs and grants that go to human services groups like the Interfaith-Food Shuttle and other nonprofits that provide services to city residents.
“There were a lot of difficult decisions,” Allen told the City Council.
The $5 increase for every vehicle registered to city residents would provide additional revenue to Raleigh’s public transit system, which runs the city’s CAT bus system as well as the Accessible Raleigh Transit program that coordinates and provides transportation for disabled city residents, Allen said. Two weeks ago, the city council allocated $1 million extra to keep the ART program running.
A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 1 at the council chambers in the Avery Upchurch Government Complex, 222 W. Hargett Street.
Published Wed, May 19, 2010 04:45 AM
Modified Wed, May 19, 2010 09:32 AM
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