Crews return Monday to cut road ditches – The Robesonian

May 15, 2020

RALEIGH With North Carolinas revenue drop for the current fiscal year predicted to be upwards of 15%, the state treasurer is calling on local governments to pinch pennies, even more so than before, and calling for residents to help.

Were all working together, but were in different boats, Dale Folwell said Friday. Lumberton may be a little different than Laurinburg, Shallotte may be a little different than Charlotte each of these communities has a unique situation going on but its important to know that the only way were going to get through this is by challenging assumptions.

The first assumption is that as much as people have been looking at the pennies and the paper clips, theyre going to have to be even better than that.

Although he is the keeper of the purse for the state he doesnt have an exact figure on just how much of a revenue loss the state could experience because of COVID-19s hit to the economy, Folwell said. But, all the predictions from experts are more than 15%. With that loss in mind, he sees rural and border counties, like Robeson County, most at risk.

It seems now, and Im not talking about the medical virus Im talking about the economic virus, it seems like this creates economic inequality to lower income parts of North Carolina, and thats our number one concern, the treasurer said.

He worries about local governments that rely on state property tax when considering their new budgets, Folwell said.

Im very concerned about the collections of water and sewer bills, he said. Im very concerned about the ability to collect property taxes. This is a very serious problem.

Folwell cited the recently signed Senate Bill 704, which alleviates stress on drivers by giving an extension on drivers license renewals and registrations to August.

When you renew the tag on your car, the biggest expense on that is not the tag, he said. Theres the property expense for the city, the county and the volunteer fire department.

With local government budget deadline of July 1, crafters of local government budgets are preparing for the unknown, Folwell said. And he is too.

As the state treasurer Im not only concerned about the state budgets, but Im also concerned about the local county and city budgets, he said.

Red Springs Manager David Ashburn said he has a budget ready to be presented to the Board of Commissioners.

We have already built into it some revenue projections that are decreased because of a potential estimated decrease in sales tax, and then the property tax is the big unknown because although they (state lawmakers) may not excuse it, they might postpone it, Ashburn said.

The town is already dealing with a loss in revenue from utility fees collection because the town cannot turn off unpaid utilities through through May.

We have a lot of people that arent paying their bills, so thats heavily affecting revenue in this fiscal year, Ashburn said.

The town is having to build its budget based on potential loss, he said.

Money that could come in this fiscal year could come in next fiscal year, or not, Ashburn said. Theres a lot of unknown that no one really knows.

Because of the unknowns Rowland Town Clerk David Townsend suggested his Board of Commissioners approve the budget to meet the July 1 deadline and later in the year approve an alternate budget that adjusts to changes in the states economy.

The operating budget for the current fiscal year was $1,449,490. Townsend said that 35% of the towns total budget relies on state taxes.

The biggest variable is how much we lose from six different state taxes we receive back from Raleigh, Townsend said.

A recent bill passed in the General Assembly appropriated $150 million for local governments. Folwell said Robeson County has received just under $2.4 million of that money.

Four billion dollars from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act was given to the state, he said. About half of that is left.

Where we stand today, we have $2 billion left from the CARES Act money, he said. We have over $2 billion left from the unappropriated budget from the year were in right now. We have nearly a billion and a half dollars in the rainy day fund, he said. Were in pretty good shape compared to other states our size.

His latest goal in Raleigh is to relax COVID-19 restrictions on federal monies going out to local governments, the treasurer said.

The strings attached to this money are too tight and we need to push the ability to use this money down to the local county commissioners and city council people, he said.

In the meantime he asking residents who can to support their local government.

If they have the economic means to do something, the quicker they can do, the healthier their local governments are gonna be, Folwell said.

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Folwell

https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/web1_treasurer-balcony-croped.jpgFolwell

NC treasurer urges local leaders to pinch pennies

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Crews return Monday to cut road ditches - The Robesonian