Next Budget — Leland Must Do Better

While unable to attend the Leland Town Council budget work session in person on April 9, I did watch via the Town’s YouTube channel to see what actions the Council was or wasn’t going to take to address the proposed 70% tax rate increase.

It was like no other budget work session I have either participated in and/or watched. At the end of 90 minutes of conversation amongst themselves, the Council instructed the Town Manager to come back with a budget proposal with a tax rate of 27 cents, up from the current 23 cent tax rate. Why 27 cents? Why not 25 cents or 23 cents? It appears to have been a number plucked from the air.

The Future

First and foremost, well done to all our neighbors who attended the March public hearing, emailed, called or spoke to members of the Council directly regarding the proposed tax increase. You were heard.

Regardless of what occurs, we all can agree the Town can do better.

Some thoughts:

1. Budget transparency — the PowerPoints the Town distributed on-line do not even come close to presenting a municipal budget. The documents provided little or no detail and left folks with the inability to make a rational judgement of what the new expenditures were, etc.
2. Town Owned Vehicles — the Town of Leland has 200 employees +/-, but has a fleet of more than 100 vehicles (not including fire trucks). Time to take a look at what they are purchasing, why and how can they phase out the number of take home vehicles over time.
3. Personnel Costs — no where in the PowerPoints distributed does it provide any specific information as to wages. I support efforts to ensure that all employees are fairly compensated, but the lack of data certainly leaves much to the imagination (and, that is not a good thing).
4. Expanding the Commercial Tax Base — there is an age old axiom related to land use — what comes first — the houses or the businesses. Well it is always the rooftops prior to the commercial tax base expanding. Let’s face it, with limited ability imposed on it by the North Carolina General Assembly to recoup development impacts, etc. expanding the commercial tax base is incredibly important. A good first step for the Council to take is to adopt the Town Planning Board’s recommendation to eliminate residential uses in the Town’s commercial and industrial zoning categories.
5. Conduct a Fiscal Impact Study — now is the time to partner with the County to understand the fiscal impact of residential development on both localities. A fiscal impact study would go a long way in providing real data as to the impact development has on the fiscal conditions of our localities, e.g. schools, fire-rescue, roads, social services, etc. There is no such thing as free.

Leland is a great place.

That is why so many of us located to this special part of the country — we are the change.

With that said, it is critical for residents to continue to provide thoughtful, productive input to the Council as it relates to a whole host of matters. And, just as importantly, let our General Assembly members know that the Town (and the County) needs flexibility in ensuring as more development occurs (and it appears there is plenty in the pipeline) that the Town and County are able to capture that cost from the folks who are developing.