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Wilmington officials outline $51M–$63M CIP gap and options including a small tax-rate adjustment

Wilmington City Council (work session) · February 6, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

City staff told council the current CIP bucket has a funding shortfall that ranges roughly $51.4M to $63.03M depending on grant outcomes; staff recommended a middle financing option (assuming grant awards and reserve use) that would require about 0.61 of a cent increase to the tax rate, with alternatives including delaying negotiable projects or reprioritizing existing funds.

City staff presented a detailed review of the capital improvement program (CIP), telling council that critical "non-negotiable" projects (bridges, bulkheads, stabilizations) carry an approximate shortfall of $23,000,000 and that negotiable projects add roughly $30,300,000 to the gap. Together, staff said, the total range is about $51.4M to $63.03M depending on grant awards and how a Riverwalk surplus is applied.

Heather Padgett, assistant budget director, described several individual projects and funding status. On the Front Street…

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