Council plans to adopt budget
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on June 1, 2018 5:50 AM
The Goldsboro City Council took about 15 minutes on Thursday to complete its final budget meeting before moving to adopt the budget June 4.
The council took almost no action, with one motion from Councilman Bill Broadaway moving $20,000 collected in the Municipal Service District into reserve for future capital projects. That motion passed 5-2, with Broadaway, Mayor Chuck Allen and councilmen David Ham, Mark Stevens and Gene Aycock voting in favor. Councilmen Bevan Foster and Antonio Williams voted against the motion.
The only other motion came from Stevens, who asked the board to re-vote on a motion to eliminate paid meals for the council and other city employees during meetings. The original motion, made by Foster at the council's May 22 meeting, failed 3-3 after Stevens left the meeting following a verbal spat with Williams. Stevens made a motion to keep paid meals, which the board approved 4-3. Stevens, Allen, Ham and Broadaway voted in favor, while Williams, Foster and Aycock voted against.
It was unclear why Stevens wanted to keep paid food after Foster's initial motion failed.
The council briefly discussed requests for the city to pitch in on teacher supplement pay in inner city schools. Under general statute 160A-209, city property taxes can only go toward those items delineated in the statute, in which school funding is not included, said city attorney Ron Lawrence. Therefore, the council is not legally allowed to allocate city tax dollars to increasing teacher pay in its schools.
After the motions concluded, the council went into closed session to discuss a known potential litigation issue.
The city's fiscal 2018-19 budget of $61.4 million reflects an increase of $2.1 million from the current budget of $59.3 million. The budget holds the line on property taxes, which are set to remain at 65 cents per $100 in property valuation. No fee increases are proposed for water, sewer or garbage service.
The budget also includes a 1 percent cost-of-living increase, and employees are eligible to receive a 1 percent merit-pay increase, which is based on performance. City employees could also receive a 1 percent increase, to 4 percent, in the city's 401(k) contribution.
The budget also includes changes to funding for several non-profit agencies. The Boys and Girls Club of Wayne County and Rebuilding Broken Places will each receive $10,000, and the HGDC Community Crisis Center will receive $5,000. The Arts Council of Wayne County and Wayne County Library will have their funding cut by $5,000 each.
The council will now move to adopt the budget on June 4. The budget goes into effect on July 1.