The Fayetteville City Council voted unanimously on Monday to increase city property taxes and fees and increase pay for police, firefighters and emergency communications workers to address ongoing concerns that the city was paying too little to attract and keep those staff.
The city’s 2024-25 budget takes effect July 1 (though the pay raises don’t start until August) and totals nearly $321 million. Starting pay for a police officer will be $50,500 per year, according to discussion at the meeting.
The citywide tax increase — 4 cents per $100 of property valuation, or $100 per year on a home valued at $250,000, $12 on a car valued at $30,000 — generates about $6 million. But that isn’t enough to cover the $11 million estimated cost for the increases and adjustments in emergency worker pay, City Manager Doug Hewett said during the council meeting.
Further, Hewett said, the city’s annual revenue from sales taxes is predicted to drop by $9 million because the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners this year changed how local sales taxes would be distributed. So Hewett said he and the city staff looked for ways to cut spending even as they proposed raising taxes.
“We are delaying replacement of vehicles,” Hewett said. “We are doing a hard freeze on some critical positions in the city. And the budget that we have is very austere and ambitious.”
At the same time, the budget includes $2.3 million for a long-proposed Office of Community Safety, plus $2.5 million for its activities. This office is expected to provide an alternative and supplement to law enforcement in responding to problems in the community that don’t necessarily need a police presence. A documentary about Durham’s Office of Community Safety, for example, says that office has social workers and mental health professionals who respond to non-violent 911 calls and work with police and emergency medical technicians, CityView has previously reported.
The city is also implementing a 4% merit increase and 1% 401(k) increase for other employees, a budget presentation document says.
The new Fayetteville tax rate is 57.95 cents per $100 worth of property.
The budget passed after weeks of revision following feedback from the public. It originally included larger tax increases than were approved on Monday.
“This council did not take lightly — or they took into consideration every impact that we could think of — to provide the services that you’re accustomed to,” Mayor Mitch Colvin said shortly before the budget vote. “We sent them back over and over again to find other ways to do it. To be conscious of the fact that people are recovering financially and economically, but you still want service and you want to feel protected.”
Tax increases and fee increases coming
While most residents will see the 4-cent tax increase, property owners in downtown Fayetteville have a bigger bite coming at them.
Downtown property owners have been paying extra property taxes since 1978 to pay for special downtown services and projects within a zone called the Municipal Service District,
In recent years, the rate has been an extra 10 cents per $100 of property. The new budget boosts that by 7 cents, to 17 cents per $100 of property value. That is in addition to the 4-cent citywide tax increase. These increases give downtown property owners a total rate increase of 11 cents per $100. If a property is valued at $1 million, its property taxes are rising by $1,100 per year.
At a previous council meeting, city staff said the increase is to cover utilities, stormwater fees, credit card and miscellaneous fees, the Downtown Ambassador program, and a management contract for the downtown district.
Businesses and residents are going to see other increases:
- The monthly stormwater fee is rising by $1, to $7 per month.
- The city’s trash collection and solid waste fee is rising by $10, to $275 per year.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
The caveat to this is that homes are set for an annual reassessment come next year, which means that some people will loose their home due to the taxes. We aren’t we talking about a new city manager who can creatively/innovatively run this city instead of taking the easy way out. It’s many ways to save and make money instead of robbing the middle class. Why are we increasing taxes to only pay for incompetent people who are unqualified to do their job. I rather you spend more money on a search firm to replace many of these supposedly managers so that the city can grow in more ways than just the population. Crime is just out of control, and there are no real corporate-like or cost of living jobs around. What are we paying all this money for. In many cities the trash people come twice a week and they don’t pay near as much as we do. It’s sad to hear that the only thing we are trying to keep up with is taking from hard working people.