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We did it.
Six months ago, the CHCCS PTA Council adopted as it's primary local advocacy priority to fully fund schools. We knew that a difficult budget year loomed and that the community would have to come together to make a difference.
Tonight the Orange County Board of County Commissioners agreed by a vote of 5-2 to increase general property taxes by 2 cents per 100$. In addition, they will be allocating almost $1M from fund balance.
The bottom line? Both CHCCS and Orange County Schools will be fully funded at the local level based on their initial budget requests.
According to the Daily Tar Heel, UNC is going to start charging for evening parking this fall. All students will shoulder this cost as an annual $10.40 charge to their student fees. Non-affliated visitors to UNC will pay $2/evening. Nighttime employees will pay an annual fee between $227 (for those with an income of less than $25K/year) to $390 (for those making over $100K/year), which is the same price as daytime permits.
In the article, UNC DPS spokesman Randy Young says:
“The folks who are only working at night, their shift is basically the same as people who work during the day, except that traditionally, they’ve been receiving free parking,” he said. “So they would pay for their parking at night, for their nighttime work, the same way employees during the day have to. In the past, daytime parking permits have essentially subsidized those who park at night.”
Addressing affordable housing so that all people can afford to live in our community is an extremely important issue to many in our community. It has been given as a reason to develop and redevelop our towns and as a reason not to. Many organizations including the Community Home Trust, EmPOWERment Inc., Habitat for Humanity, the InterFaith Council, CASA, Orange County Justice United, and The Marion Cheek Jackson Center have been working with the towns and county to provide and/or advocate for housing at prices attainable across all spectrums of income.
In this season of municipal budget discussions, a rundown of what our towns and elected boards are working on around affordable housing seems appropriate. I asked members of each elected board what their board is focused on this year. Here is a summary.
Budgets will again be the focus of Orange County's public bodies this week. Both the Chapel Hill Town Council and the Hillsborough Town Board will vote to approve their budgets for the upcoming year tonight, while the county commissioners will hold another work session to continue working through their spending plan tomorrow. The Orange County Board of Education will also consider its budget after hearing about strategies to recruit and retain minority teachers. The Carrboro Alderfolks have the development of a new park and an update for the Local Living Economy Task Force on their agenda.
Here’s the full summary:
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
Regular Meeting: Tuesday, June 10th, 7:30pm, Carrboro Town Hall Board Room
I just returned home from a three plus hour meeting about Obey Creek. This was the last meeting before Chapel Hill decides to enter a development agreement negotiation. Phase I the Compass Committee ended last winter, Phase II addional information gathering has been during the last six months and phase III negotiations will probably begin soon. The first hour was a repeat of the traffic analysis presentation that was given last month at the library. More data will be obtained from additional studies but the analysis incorporates 1.2% traffic growth rate as the back ground increase in traffic. It projects 10% of the Obey Creek development traffic to be carried by mass transit. The next two hours were devoted to the general Obey Creek plan, modifications and potential points for negotiation. The general plan would allocate 50 acres for green space ( part of which could become come a school if needed) and 30acres developed near 15-501. At the end Roger stood up and stated that if Council permitted less than 1,000,000 square feet he would use current zoning for creating 120 homes on the 85 acres.
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