Neither Buncombe County nor Asheville will include a tax increase in their budget plans for the next fiscal year, the Council of Independent Business Owners were informed at an April 8 issues meeting at Chick-fil-A restaurant in North Asheville.

County Manager Wanda Greene emphasized in her presentation that there will be no tax increase in the county’s fiscal 2016-2017 budget plan. She also reviewed the annual operating budget.

Providing the City of Asheville’s budget plan was City Manager Gary Jackson, who said the only increases in the city’s proposed 2016-17 budget are for already-approved fees for water, storm drainage and garbage pickup. His office later confirmed to the Daily Planet that no tax increase would be included in his budget plan.

On a third matter, Buncombe Tax Collector Gary Roberts explained the process for county property tax revaluation.

The meeting drew about 50 people, including business-owners, government officials and others.

Greene told CIBO, “I want to begin by saying that I am going to take a budget to the county commissioners that does not include a tax increase.”

She added that the year “2016 was a really hard hit for us — with a $9 million loss from a lawsuit. So we’re going to finish 2016 with a (rare) loss. We plan to make that up in 2017.

“We’re in touch with DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) nearly every day to make sure we meet our performance criteria. Depending on the program that’s being used, it affects how much we’re reimbursed.

“It’s also an election year, so it’s a hit to our staffing.

“We did get instructions from the state Board of Elections yesterday (April 7) that we must have at least six people at each precinct. We could get by with three (as the county has), but the state said we have to have six. So that will be a (budgetary) ‘hit’ —  for temporary employees.

“Two schools are opening…. We installed water lines for CTS ($120,000). We’re going to open Enka Elementary School in the fall. Usually, it costs $1 million to open a new school. We’re looking at about a $1.5 million increase in our health care costs.

“Some constructions projects taking place include the Family Justice Center (bringing together a number of social services, especially those dealing with domestic violence, most county services, but some city). You hate to call it a ‘one-stop place,’ but it’s a ‘one-stop place.’ That will open in August.

“Our 650-space parking deck on Cox Avenue will open soon. It’s still about 18 months out from completion.

“And A-B Tech has its one-fourth-cent sales tax. We’re going to demolish the Rhododendron building and put something new there.

“We’ve had to say a lot of ‘no’s’ on things... We will wait till May for the budget requests from the schools.

“Our sales tax (reimbursement from the state) has been pretty good and is helping us balance our budget. Probably, I do anticipate we’ll see some changes in ’18.

“As I said it’s my intent to bring the budget forward without any tax increase,” Greene concluded.

During a question-and-answer session that followed, CIBO member Mac Swicegood said, “Unfunded mandates — tell us about them.”

“I don’t know if y’all know it or not, but the state tells us how we have to staff our social services staffing,” Greene said. “The cost of those positions is $1.8 million.”

A man asked, “What is the county doing in terms of providing more affordable housing?”

“We do participate in the housing consortium with the city,” Greene replied. “We do some projects, but I wouldn’t stand here and pretend we do as much as the city... We don’t have the (population) density,” but she said the county makes as much effort as is prudent to work with the city on such projects.

A woman asked, “Why did the state mandate that you must have six paid workers at each precinct?”

“Part of it has to do with the voter ID,” Greene answered. “We really don’t think we need six (workers) at every precinct. They did not tell us how they arrived at the number six. We will continue to ask about that.”

Next, Jackson, the city manager, began his Asheville update by noting, “We are in better shape in terms of our accounting and finance than we’ve been in in five years. That’s the result of the city trying to manage its finances as much like a business as we can.

“We have had people on council with a business perspective,” Jackson said, city (former councilman) Jan Davis as “a real help” over the years. We take this for granted, but we need some grounding. It really helps to have someone with a (business background and) long-term view in there. We are very fortunate to have (Councilwoman) Gwen Wisler as chair of the Finance Committee.

“But we are in great shape. Looking back from a multi-year perspective… So looking back to 2009, our reserves went from 18 percent (of the budget) to under 15 percent. That was to balance the budget during the recession. Since then, we’ve been trying to increase our reserves. 15 percent is the gold standard and we’re now at 16.1 percent.

“In this region, we’ve got 4 percent employment, valuations are going up. I think Montford was the only place hit last time in reassessments.

“So, looking forward, we also had a robust local economy in the current year,” Jackson said, adding that maybe there is a $1 million surplus on a $100 million budget and “that will be money available for one-time investments.

“So we think we’re going to be in a position to increase the fund balance to 16.9 to 17 percent and to have a surplus that can be spent. Under a million dollars of that amount will go into a big and comprehensive plan downtown — catching up on street repairs. And something like $1 million to invest in housing in the Lee-Walker Heights complex.

“Well, the bad news for the rate-payer is part of the five-year plan has been to increase the water rates. What you’re seeing are very modest increases going in automatically. Same thing with storm drainage and garbage rates — they’re going up till we get to cost recovery from those using the services.

“We’re going to need more police officers. So that will be a key consideration in next year’s budget. Likewise, we’re in undercoverage of North Asheville. We’re working on bringing online a fire station on the Broadway corridor to serve UNCA and the Merrimon Avenue area.

“So that’s pretty much where we are in terms of our operating budget.

“In terms of the capital budget, the car tax increase will generate $1.4 million, which will go into street maintenance.

“More will be spent on the RAD (River Arts District) and Riverside. We’ve tendered offers to 40-plus property owners in the corridor. May 15 is the deadline to sell their properties. Otherwise, the city will take the properties. It’s a very exciting time on the river and a very exciting time on the South Slope, where we need additional parking facilities,” Jackson said, adding that parking needs should be examined there and in downtown.

During a Q&A that followed, CIBO member Swicegood asked, “The RAD — we’ve been involved as an organization to have it developed for many years. It’s been friendly. Now it’s becoming ‘Big Brother with a Big Hammer’ that’s” making people mad. He urged city officials to show “some more sensitivity” in their interactions with the property-owners. 

Jackson thanked Swicegood for his suggestion, but noted that city officials have gone to great lengths to interact on positive terms with the affected property-owners — “so people have had every opportunity to get positioned… and it’s evolved in a cooperative fashion.”

Meanwhile, Gary Roberts, the county tax collector, said he would address “how do we set the appraisal date and what the tax office does.”

He stressed that “the county commissioners are the only ones who can change tax values. In order to do that, they work with a tax collector. State law says counties are required to do reassessments at least once every eight years. Buncombe has chosen every four years since 1988.” 

Roberts added, “During the recession from 2008 to 2013, we (Buncombe) did fewer reassessments. That’s the only time I’ve know that we’ve gotten away from the four-year period. If the sales ratio goes within certain figures, Buncombe County is required to do a reassessment.”

Regarding current appraisals, the county tax collector said that Buncombe “has a lot (of properties) in the 70 percent” of value range, such as “the South Slope of the River Arts District” in Asheville, “while Barnardsville is more than 90 percent. Woodfin is lower at 82 percent. Montreat is about 92 percent — so their assessment to market (value) is pretty good... There is a big range of tax ratios — and that’s one of the things I’m always looking at.”

Just a week before the CIBO meeting, Roberts said, “We’ve been approved to do the reappraisal. We look at every influence, every improvement....” He noted that one of his goals is “to get the appraisals done pretty much this fall .. Once we have the values complete on Jan. 1, 2017, we will mail out these values. We send the tax bills out in August.

“We usually have relatively few appeals,” Roberts noted.