The Vance County budget for 2018-2019 was adopted unanimously at Monday night’s Vance County Board of Commissioners meeting.  When all the funds are added up, the budget equals $56,131,498.

“The budget does not include any increase in the general fund tax rate (remains 89 cents per $100 value) and does not include any increase in the water rates. The budget does include an increase of 2 cents in the fire tax rate taking that rate to 6.4 cents per $100. This increase is directly related to increased funding for the departments from the fire tax. The Solid Waste Fee also increased to $112 ($7 increase) per household and is a direct result of rising electronics waste costs,” County Manager Jordan McMillan told WIZS News.

The extra fire tax will help give some relief to volunteer departments across the county who spend countless hours in fundraising mode every year.  The Vance County Fire Department will also benefit as explained on page 11 of a 12 page document of budget highlights.  It says: “Fire Tax Fund – Fire tax increases to 6.4 cents (2 cent increase) to allow for funding of $100,000 to each of the six volunteer departments and one county department, with two border departments receiving $67,500 each from the fire tax. This is a $39,400 increase for each department from their current level of $60,600 and a $37,200 increase for the border departments.”

The extra solid waste fees will help address the fact that electronics can be disposed of properly in Vance County now, a service that is fairly new and thus the charges incurred by the County are also new.

As McMillan also explained, “With the increased solid waste fee the board did approve opening the NC 39 Hwy North Solid Waste Convenience Site on Sundays from 1-6 p.m. between Memorial Day and Labor Day. We anticipate opening it this year by the end of June with subsequent years being between Memorial Day and Labor Day.”

Priorities in the budget are education, public safety and human services which use about 75 percent of the general fund budget.

McMillan added that the budget addresses employee retention and pay by “funding  the second and final phase of the salary and classification study, along with a one-time bonus for county employees.”

McMillan emailed WIZS News some additional bullet points about the budget which are listed below.

• The budget works to improve the health of Vance County citizens through increased operational funding for the health department in accordance with a multiyear funding plan established with Granville County and the health department.
• The budget modernizes county information technology assets by moving the tax office software to the cloud, implementing online based job applications, replacing network switches and a storage server, beginning upgrades to Windows 10, and providing for normal PC/monitor replacements.
• The budget advances the county’s efforts to develop sites for economic development, attract investment and create jobs by setting aside a portion of the redistributed sales tax proceeds for the purchase of land.
• The budget invests in education and 21st century learning by providing $1,337,000 in capital to Vance County Schools to support lease payments on teacher devices, to provide matching grant funds for a z-space 3-dimensional learning environment, for ADA compliance upgrades, activity bus replacements and other requested school capital needs.
• The budget addresses funding needs for the volunteer fire departments.
• The budget invests in one-time capital needs by implementing the FY19 CIP (Capital Improvement Plan). The projects include purchasing mobile CAD hardware, a jail intercom and door modernization project, replacing/repairing courthouse seating, replacing courthouse HVAC systems, admin building window replacements, Dennis building wall repairs, and a cardiac monitor purchase for EMS.