Cary adopts budget, holds line on property taxes

Cary Town Council adopted a $233 million budget Thursday that keeps property taxes unchanged for the 22nd consecutive year and holds residential garbage, recycling and yard waste fees at current levels.

The approved Fiscal Year 2013 budget is virtually unchanged from the spending plan proposed earlier by Town Manager Benjamin T. Shivar. The property tax rate is 33 cents per $100 valuation, and residential garbage, recycling and yard waste fees are $14 per month.

The new budget, which takes effect July 1, is 5.2 percent higher than the current fiscal year’s budget and includes a 6 percent utility rate increase to help pay for the town’s share of state-mandated Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities, officials said.

Council also voted to establish the town’s first Business Improvement District in a quarter-mile area in the center of downtown. The district is designed to spur private redevelopment by having the town, not property owners, pay for required development fees for a three-year period beginning July 1. The tax rate in the district will be the same as the rest of the town.

“This budget and our new BID are responsible, forward-thinking decisions right for our community at this point in the long, slow recovery from the devastating recession that’s gripped the entire nation,” said Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said.

The budget includes a $48.4 million capital plan with money tagged for continued downtown improvements, street resurfacing, New Hope Church Trailhead Park and development of Crabtree Creek Greenway. Officials said no new debt will be incurred for general capital projects. More than half of the 49 capital projects are funded fully or partially by federal grants or state collected local revenues.

The budget adds seven positions, including one detective, one transit planner and one Downtown Theater facility and four utility-related positions.