What local government did, 31 May – 6 June

Budget season peaked in the first week of June. Wake County adopted its fiscal 2027 operating budget, capital projects and position authorizations on the 1st; Holly Springs adopted its budget and community investment plan on the 2nd; Durham County held a fourth day of work sessions; Hillsborough's tourism board and Knightdale's council each took hearings on their own.

Orange County's commissioners spent the 4th settling theirs line by line, and the record of it is unusually clear about how a board argues. They began by agreeing on a process — every amendment named with the funding source it draws from, so nobody could claim a staff-proposed cut as their own — after one member warned the rules invited opportunism. Then they came to schools. A motion to raise taxes 0.81 cents for education failed 3 to 4. A second, for 0.47 cents, passed 4 to 3. The resolution of intent that followed set the rate at 68.05 cents per $100, with a 14.79-cent Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district tax on top for those residents, and carried 6-1.

That 0.47 cents came back. On 16 June, at the meeting that adopted the budget, a motion to send it to the manager to find 0.47 cents in cuts failed on a 3-3 tie. The commissioner who had moved the education increase was absent. She died five days after that.

Two days earlier the same board voted unanimously to terminate a tax collection agreement it has had with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough since 1979. Since 2006 the county tax collector has billed and collected for the three towns at 0.5 percent of what it brings in, under terms that run up to 99 years and cannot be changed unless all three agree. The board gave notice before 30 June and will negotiate with each town separately. One commissioner said there should be no more 99-year agreements. The same meeting accepted a rewritten farmland preservation plan, three years in the making, replacing one from 2009.

Advisory boards did the week's other useful work. Pittsboro's downtown board recommended the Downtown Overlay District text amendment that reached the commissioners in July, with its presiding vice-chair recused for a conflict of interest. Cary's human relations board put written questions to a police captain about training and outreach to underrepresented residents. Its zoning board of adjustment split 3-2 on outdoor seating for a Gathering Park Circle bar, which is unusual for a body that mostly votes together. Orange County's planning board recommended a rezoning inside Chapel Hill's transition area, one of the small pockets where town zoning governs county land. And Pittsboro's design committee walked downtown at eight at night to see how it works after dark.

31 boards met across 14 governments, with 210 agenda items on file.