Cramerton weighs budget choices as manager prepares official budget message for May 18

Town Manager Zach Ollis told the Town of Cramerton Board of Commissioners on May 4 that updated budget materials incorporate new revenue information and outline priorities including the Centennial Park project, C.B. Huss moisture mitigation, a potential internship program, parks and recreation costs and staffing retention needs. He said he will send the updated budget documents to the Board and will present an official budget message on May 18.

The discussion centered on how to balance competitive staff pay with citizen concerns about tax rates and on replenishing the town’s fund balance. Commissioner Atkinson asked for clarification of a revenue-neutral rate and said that “revenue neutral has become a buzzword” in local budget conversations, noting comparisons he has made between household operating costs and town operating costs under last year’s budget. Town Manager Zach Ollis answered questions about the revenue-neutral concept and described the costs required to maintain current service levels.

Commissioner Kincaid sought clarification on Parks and Recreation salary figures for full-time and seasonal staff and said the salary study supports raising pay to attract and retain employees. Commissioner Helms read constituent questions about the tax rate aloud and urged the Board to weigh how operating expenses and projects affect taxpayers. Mayor Pro Tempore Susan Neeley said she supported using the salary study to improve competitiveness for town staff while still completing needed projects.

Board members discussed the difficulty of predicting inflation and the need to rebuild the fund balance; Ollis described Local Government Commission peer-group comparisons and offered to provide additional fund-balance information to the Board. He asked commissioners to email him their preferred tax-rate positions so he can incorporate that feedback into the budget presentation. Ollis said he will include documents to call for a public hearing on the budget at the May 18 presentation and suggested scheduling the hearing in June; an exact date was not specified.

The Board’s conversation was framed as discussion only; no formal tax-rate decision or vote on the budget occurred at the meeting. The next procedural step is Ollis’s May 18 presentation and the subsequent public hearing and vote on the budget at a later meeting.