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Budget Work Session

Orange County · Board of County Commissioners
Thursday, June 5, 2025

Work session Budget and appropriationsSchools and educationTax rate and revaluationBonds and debtEnvironment and sustainabilityFees and utility ratesFire and EMSPolice and public safetyPublic facilitiesSolid waste and recycling

Agenda document Minutes Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 1Discussion and Decisions on FY 2025-35 Capital Investment Plan Ten-year plan accepted; first-year funding of $75,322,781 approved
  2. Approved 2Discussion of FY 2025-26 Operating Budget Approved with amendments
  3. Approved 3Discussion and Decision on the FY 2025-26 County Fee Schedule Approved
  4. Approved 6Resolution of Intent to Adopt FY 2025-26 Annual Operating Budget Approved unanimously

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

The meeting where Orange County's 2025-26 budget is actually decided. The manager put a recommended budget in front of the commissioners on 6 May, two public hearings followed, and this three-hour work session at the Southern Human Services Center is where the board works down the amendment list and settles the numbers: the ten-year capital plan first, then the operating budget and what the two school districts get per pupil, then the fee schedule, then the county property tax rate, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district tax and twelve fire district rates. Formal adoption follows on 17 June. The board takes no public comment at a work session; written comments go to ocbocc@orangecountync.gov.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The commissioners cut the property tax rate below what their own manager recommended, and paid for it out of school capital.

The draft resolution in the agenda packet set the county rate at 65.59 cents per $100 of assessed value. What passed set it at 63.83. The change came through amendment CIP-B14, which took about $5.9 million out of pay-as-you-go recurring capital for the two school districts, dropping that line from $9,521,200 to $3,621,200 and the county's additional school funding from $13,682,006 to $7,782,006. Its sponsors argued this was a revaluation year, that residential owners were already going to pay more because their assessments rose, and that voters had approved a school bond in autumn 2024 whose referendum said nothing about pay-go. One commissioner put the practical case: the amendment brings the rate to about 1.19 cents above revenue neutral, and that difference matters to someone living paycheck to paycheck. One commissioner voted no, preferring the manager's plan on the grounds that rates will have to rise in later years anyway and the current plan covers only about a third of the need. It passed six to one, and afterwards a commissioner asked listeners to note that the dissent had a reasonable argument behind it.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district tax went up 0.38 cents to 14.79, half what the school board asked for, on a five to two vote. The commissioner who moved the half measure said the district has lost about 1,000 students with another 113 in the latest projection, that its fund balance had grown by only $40,000 and goes negative once the required set-aside is counted, and that the district has not closed an elementary school or redistricted in twelve or thirteen years. That opened a wider question the board did not settle: whether the two districts' different taxing models still make sense, which the chair said she would raise at the next school collaboration meeting.

One amendment failed, and unanimously. CIP-B04 would have cut the planned RENA community expansion from $2.8 million to $1 million. Every commissioner voted against it, including its own sponsor, who said she would likely vote against her own motion; several framed it as a matter of trust with a community the county had already committed to, and the board agreed instead to start preliminary planning and talk to the community about what it actually needs. The first year of that expense is three years out.

Also settled: school current expense of $111,328,011, which is $5,877 per pupil, split $64,752,786 to Chapel Hill-Carrboro and $46,575,225 to Orange County Schools; school debt service of $20,840,155; $4,124,806 for school resource officers in every middle and high school and a school nurse in every school in both districts; and a first-year capital plan of $75,322,781. County staff get a 2 percent raise, a living wage floor of $18.18 an hour from 1 July, merit pay in January at $561, $842 or $1,122 by performance tier, and a supplemental retirement contribution of $102 a paycheck. An amendment moved money from the Social Justice Reserve Fund into the low-income homeowner assistance programme, on the reasoning that the revaluation will push more residents into needing it. The board adjourned at 9:23 PM.

How the votes went

Around twenty amendments, most carried unanimously. Four were not: CIP-B14, cutting school pay-as-you-go capital to lower the tax rate, passed 6-1 with Commissioner Fowler against; OP-B02, raising the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district tax by 0.38 cents, passed 5-2 with Commissioners McKee and Portie-Ascott against; OP-B07 passed 6-1 with Commissioner Fowler against; and CIP-B04, cutting the RENA expansion, failed 0-7 with its own sponsor voting no. The resolution of intent to adopt the budget on 17 June passed unanimously.

From the published minutes.

Who spoke

No members of the public spoke.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.

Speaking at this meeting

Orange County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (6)

Budget action · 4Procedural · 1Resolution · 1
  1. 1 Discussion and Decisions on FY 2025-35 Capital Investment Plan
    Budget action Bonds and debtBudget and appropriationsEnvironment and sustainabilityPublic facilitiesSchools and educationSolid waste and recyclingTax rate and revaluation
    The ten-year capital plan, of which only the first year commits money. The board worked down a list of amendments: deferrals on several projects, $100,000 for public EV chargers and $50,000 every other year, $1.8 million of solar over ten years, a climate resilience item aimed at heat as the leading weather-related killer in the rural county, and a shift of spending away from the leased DSS building toward buildings the county owns. An amendment to cut the RENA community expansion from $2.8 million to $1 million failed unanimously. Amendment CIP-B14 cut about $5.9 million of pay-as-you-go school capital to bring the tax rate down. First-year funding was set at $75,322,781: $38,035,068 count…
    Ten-year plan accepted; first-year funding of $75,322,781 approved
  2. 2 Discussion of FY 2025-26 Operating Budget
    Budget action Bonds and debtBudget and appropriationsPolice and public safetySchools and educationTax rate and revaluation
    School current expense of $111,328,011, or $5,877 per pupil: $64,752,786 to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and $46,575,225 to Orange County Schools, with $20,840,155 in school debt service and $4,124,806 for school resource officers in every middle and high school and a nurse in every school. County staff get a 2 percent raise, an $18.18 hourly living wage floor from 1 July, merit pay of $561, $842 or $1,122 by tier in January, and $102 a paycheck into supplemental retirement. Money moved from the Social Justice Reserve Fund into low-income homeowner assistance because the revaluation will increase demand for it.
    Approved with amendments
  3. 3 Discussion and Decision on the FY 2025-26 County Fee Schedule
    Budget action Budget and appropriationsFees and utility rates
    The fee schedule as recommended, with the changes the board made during the session.
    Approved
  4. 4 Discussion and Decision on the FY 2025-26 Tax Rates
    Budget action Budget and appropriationsFire and EMSSchools and educationTax rate and revaluation
    The county ad valorem rate was set at 63.83 cents per $100, below the 65.59 in the manager's draft, after the board cut school pay-as-you-go capital. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district tax rose 0.38 cents to 14.79, half the school board's request, on a 5-2 vote. Twelve fire and fire service district rates were set unchanged from the draft, from 5.35 cents in Little River to 14.00 in White Cross.
    County rate 63.83 cents; CHCCS district tax 14.79 cents; twelve fire district rates set
  5. 5 Break
    Procedural Budget and appropriations
    Fifteen minutes for budget staff to draft the resolution of intent.
  6. 6 Resolution of Intent to Adopt FY 2025-26 Annual Operating Budget
    Resolution Budget and appropriations
    RES-2025-031, recording every decision made during the session and committing the board to adopt the budget ordinance at its business meeting on 17 June 2025.
    Approved unanimously

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