ENKA — The proposed Buncombe County budget for the next fiscal year is balanced with no planned tax increase, County Manager Wanda Greene told the Council for Independent Business Owners on April 10.

In her “State of the County” address to CIBO, Greene added that “one of the things we have to wait on is our education budgets,” which “won’t arrive till mid-May,” as is normally the case as funding and planning takes longer for education officials to figure out. However, Greene said she did not expect that the education budgets would require a county tax increase.

About 50 people attended the breakfast meeting in the Haynes Conference Center at A-B Tech’s Enka campus.

“Our budget is balanced and we’re not asking for anything new,” Greene said. “We’ve seen our biggest growth because of the Affordable Care Act” and N.C. FAST, which is an unfunded state mandate. “We’re able to compensate for that (growth in costs) by cutting from other areas.”

As for pruning costs, she said the county is “privatizing the management of our parking facilities. Parking is such a high demand” service, “it’s interesting to see how people compete” to provide it.

Greene also said that Buncombe is saving money by “privatizing management of our outdoor pools. That frankly takes a major workload off our staff.”

What’s more, she said, “We also did an early retirement (offer) last fall. One hundred thirty-one people left at the end of September (2014).” In the aftermath, “we eliminated some positions and rethought some other positions” to save money.

With a smile, Greene added, “A few things have happened” with county building projects “that are interesting” and have been highly publicized in the press. These, she said, include the following:

• The construction of a Buncombe Departmnt of Health and Human Services building at 40 Coxe Avenue downtown. The 69,000-square-foot addition is well-located, Greene said, given that studies show about “40 percent of the people who use that facility” live within close proximity to it.

• The construction of Enka Intermediate school, which, according to the county manager, is “just down the road” from A-B Tech’s Enka campus, from which she was speaking.

• The planned construction of a $6.5 million indoor swimming pool complex to replace a soon-to-be closed Skyland facility used by five public schools. “It’s really going to be an athletic facility, not just a public pool,” Greene said. Construction has not started yet.

• The opening of an indoor firing range in Woodfin. The facility, with 12-lanes, each 50 yards long, is for area law enforcement officer training.

Also, Greene said the county “is going tor refinance about $50 million of debt, for a savings estimated at about $5 million.”

Regarding sales taxes, Greene noted that various state legislation that would change how counties are reimbursed — in a move favoring more rural counties over more urban counties  — “has hurt Buncombe County.” However, she credited State Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Hendersonville, for helping to make the best of a potentially horrific situation for Buncombe. At present, it looks like the county will lose $3 million annual in sales tax reimbursements, she said.

“He (Apodaca) helped back it up. It would have cost us about $17 million... For me, when I heard we might lose $17 million total versus the second bill (backed by Apodaca) where we’d lose $3 million — that got a lot more manageable.

“I do think you’ll see activity on the sales tax (from the General Assembly in Raleigh) right up to the end” of the legislative session. “We will be watching closely because that is our largest tax source.”

During the question-and-answer session that followed, a man asked how many people does the county employ.

Without a pause, Greene replied, “One thousand four hundred twenty employees for the county — and almost another 800 in the school system....”

Another man then asked, “How will growth in infrastructure keep up with costs?”

“I think all the agencies are keeping up,” Greene answered. “We will be revaluating properties. We’re seeing lots of increase in values in what’s going on. It’s a balance.”

CIBO member Mac Swicegood said, “We’re projected to have a great increase in retirees over the next few years” in the Buncombe area. “How do you plan for that?”

“I think one of the things we need to focus on is keeping them (retirees) in their homes. And keeping the (housing) stock in good shape is important,” Greene said.

A man asked, “With all the growth we’re having, do you have a percentage increase” in mind?

“I don’t,” Greene said. “Gary (Roberts) and Keith (Miller) may have that in their report” to CIBO. “We’re seeing an increase in a positive direction, after falling during the recession.”

Another man asked about the health care cost per employee.

“Anywhere from $8,400 to $13,000 per employee per year,” Greene said. “We’re self-funded. We use Blue Cross as a third-party administrator. We manage that in a separate fund.”

Next, an update on the county Tax Department was presented, with Roberts noting, “On collections, it has been a very good year for us. My thought, as director of tax, is if I get every dollar, I keep the rate down.”

He said Buncombe’s collection rate is 98.25 percent — and his goal is “in the 99s. That’s a high number... Collections are a lot better than they have been.

He also noted that Asheville “had a 1.45 percent jump” in its tax base.

Roberts added, “We do collections and assessments... Other things that we do is data that we store. We constantly want to improve that.”

Roberts then introduced Miller, real estate manager for the county, who, he said, would discuss ways the county is preparing for its upcoming property reappraisal. “Now the board hasn’t approved that,” Roberts noted. “We’re looking at 2017 for that.”

Miller said, “I do manage the assessment for all the parcels of Buncombe County. On the land record side, I manage the ownership” and other aspects.

“We are considering a reappraisal in 2017... We collect data constantly on commercial and residential sides....

“The No. 1 thing — when Gary (Roberts)and I meet — that we talk about is how we can better serve the community,” Miller said. “So that’s important to us. I’m always interested in your feedback. We’re always interested in improving that.”

Miller added, “Working with the tax office should never be a controversial situation. So please let us know how we’re doing and what we could do better.”

In the question-and-answer session afterward, a man asked, “Does the county plan on flying (over Buncombe’s properties) before the appraisal?”

“There is a plan for the county to have a flyover,” Miller said.

The man then asserted, “As someone who has flown a lot, the best time is now.

“Yes, the best time is fall and winter, before the leaves are on the trees,” Miller said.

On a third matter, an open data report was presented by Jonathan Feldman, Asheville’s chief information officer.

“Before we talk about ‘open data,’ let’s talk about what data is... So when you talk about data really, really truly, it’s just a table. It’s rows and columns. We call that structured data. So now you know what IT (information technology) people know.”

Feldman added that he feels “there’s a lot of sensationalism in the (news) media on what open media is. Sometimes it’s politicized.” In reality, he said, “We take open records and apply automation to it.... Open data is just the automation of those open-record requests.”

He then asked, rhetorically, “Should as much be open as is open? But that is not a question for me. I am staff. I am not a state legislator. For us, we follow the law.”

A man asked, “What would be an example of data that would need to be redacted?

“A Social Security number would be an example of data that needs to be redacted,” Feldman replied. “Also, some building permits” need to be redacted.

Swicegood asked, “You’re exposed to a lot of information... But what safeguards does the city have in place for information that doesn’t need to be made public?”

“I’d have to kill you if I told you,” Feldman quipped, triggering laughter from the CIBO crowd, including Swicegood. On a more serious note, Feldman said, “We don’t talk about specific safeguards. We do security awareness training... In talking with CIOs (chief information officers) they say, overwhelmingly, it’s either an insider threat or someone who didn’t follow the rules” that breaches security.

“We are audited by the FBI, a financial auditor, police accreditation... We get audited a lot,” Feldman said. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as 100 percent security.”