Proposed budget for City of Kinston includes property tax increase
Kinston City Manager Tony Sears presented a proposed budget to City Council late last week. The budget, which totals more than $111 million, includes a proposal for an increase in property taxes in the city.
If passed, the city’s property taxes would go up from $.70 to $.73 per $100 of valuation. The increase, according to City Manager Tony Sears, is entirely to fund a 4 percent raise for city employees.
Sears said Kinston has struggled to recruit and retain employees — especially in the police and fire departments — due to higher salaries offered by other cities in the area. Currently, the city has 28 unfilled positions, and Sears said the disparity between starting salaries in cities like Greenville and Jacksonville has made it difficult to fill them and to keep current employees from leaving.
“The city has to make an effort to reduce the pay gap in order to maintain senior employees who have the knowledge and experience to provide the level of service everyone expects,” Sears said.
Employee salaries are a recurring expense, Sears said, so they have to be funded by a recurring and dependable source of revenue. Sales taxes and other revenue streams fluctuate from year to year, so the property tax increase is needed to ensure that the city can provide the necessary services, Sears said.
Councilman Joe Tyson said he is very pleased with the proposed budget because it successfully addresses the priorities the city council, city manager and department heads had determined were critical for the city.
In addition to employee raises, other priorities addressed in the budget include an increase in the street resurfacing budget, additional funds for demolition of derelict houses, maintaining utilities infrastructure and new vehicles for the police department, Tyson said.
Mayor Don Hardy said he believes employee raises will help the city with recruitment and retention and ensure the city continues to provide essential services.
Hardy said he is pleased the proposed budget is balanced and it maintains a good level of funding in the city’s general fund for future emergencies. His only concern with the budget, he said, is the lack of funds from promised federal disaster relief.
Tyson said anyone can go to city hall and get a copy of the proposed budget and attend a public hearing on June 17, where the city council will hear input from citizens on the budget. If there are no major concerns from the public, the council will vote to approve the budget that day.
The public hearing on the proposed budget will be held at 5:30 p.m., June 17, at City Hall, 207 E. King St. Citizens who wish to speak at the meeting should arrive early to sign in.
