Jun 8

Jun 8 Kinston City Council set to increase property taxes and seeks own pay raise second year in a row

City Manager proposes 2021-2022 city budget

City manager Tony Sears released his budget recommendations to Council at the meeting on June 1, 2021.

“I’d really like to take this opportunity to commend the council for the leadership and stewardship that you provided over the last year,” said Sears.

A proposed increase in Property Tax from $0.73 to $0.77 per $100 valuation is included in the 2021-2022 City Budget. The Municipal Service District Tax, which impacts the downtown area, had no increase and remains at $0.27 per $100. The GTP fire tax also had no increase and stayed the same at $0.045 per $100.

“In order to get this budget to where it needs to be we are legally obligated to have a balanced budget,” said Sears.

The expenditures continued the city resurfacing program and the demolition to continue city beautification. Organizational support levels for non-profit organizations that support public purposes including Arts and Culture, City Wide Community Enhancement, Economic Development, and Human Services will be maintained at the previous year’s levels.

According to Sears, the proposed property tax increase is necessary to establish a balanced budget without the use of Fund Balance.

“The problem is that at some point the budget has to balance on its own. The use of Fund Balance is not a viable option at this time,” said Sears.

Another proposal of the budget is to add one full-time position to Parks and Recreation for the stadium and to transfer the Public Information Officer from the Police budget to the City Council budget.

“We are trying to get to those numbers for vaccinations, set by the president and the governor, to get to a sense of normalcy for our community,” said Mayor Dontario Hardy.

The budget also includes a $3,600 increase to the Mayor’s salary and the total line item increase in City Council members’ salaries is $18,000 total per year or an additional $3,600 each for the year. This is more than a 40% increase over previous years. In addition to the salary increases, the Board Member Allowance increased 44.98% to $19,422.

“The City Council and myself worked tirelessly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Hardy. “When you start talking about advocating resources for vaccinations and food drives, COVID-19 testing, and organizing boots on the ground trying to get people vaccinated.”

In addition to the mayor’s salary increase, the proposed 2021-2022 City Budget also included a $1,800 dry cleaning allowance for the Mayor. Hardy stated he requested the removal of the $1,800 dry-cleaning allowance from the proposed budget.

“The dry cleaning request has been pulled out,” said Hardy who said he initially requested the expenditure “because of all that I do every day and have to pay for myself.”

The Kinston City Council is set to vote on the budget at the Tuesday, June 15th meeting. This meeting will be held virtually and can be viewed on the City's Facebook page.