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Apex council adopts FY2027 budget with 1.75-cent tax-rate increase to fund public safety and capital projects
Summary
The council adopted a $261.74 million FY2027 budget with a 1.75-cent tax increase (to 37.35 cents) to add public-safety staff and advance community investment projects; the mayor offered a zero-increase alternative but the council approved a modified proposal that restores a full penny to the Community Investment Fund.
The Apex Town Council on Monday approved the towns FY2027 operating and capital budget, adopting a managers modified proposal that includes a 1.75-cent increase in the tax rate to 37.35 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Finance staff presented a $261.74 million total budget for FY2027, with a $122.7 million general fund (a 6.55% increase). The package includes 15.5 new full-time equivalent positions (eight in public safety), $14.67 million in general-fund capital equipment and projects, and allocations for the electric, water/sewer, and stormwater funds. Solid-waste yard-waste collection will move toward full cost recovery (a $35 increase noted in the proposal). The electric fund shows a recommended 6.25% rate increase; water and sewer base and volumetric rates were proposed to rise about 4%.
Mayor Jacqu K. Gilbert proposed an alternative budget pathway that would have deferred some capital projects and sought to reach a no-tax-increase scenario while maintaining public-safety hires; the council discussed those trade-offs at length. Jessica Hoffman, the towns finance director, and Manager Vossberg described alternate reduction packages that would preserve key public-safety items while shifting community investment timing. The version the council adopted re-establishes a full penny to the Community Investment Fund (CIF) to keep certain transportation and parks projects within the five-year CIP window and offsets that restoration with targeted operating reductions staff identified.
Council members who supported the adopted budget said the modest tax increase was necessary to keep pace with growth-driven demand for public safety, to avoid deferring critical infrastructure that becomes more expensive over time, and to preserve the towns long-term capital planning. Opponents and several public speakers urged caution about near-term tax increases and asked staff to scrutinize vendor contracts, regulatory costs and audit delays.
Jessica Hoffman summarized resident impact: under staffs assumptions, the combined monthly change for a typical Apex household (adjusting the local median house value used for benchmarking) would be about $2.54 per month, or roughly $35.52 per year. The council voted to approve the modified manager package by unanimous voice vote.
What happens next: staff will finalize ordinances, update rate schedules and incorporate the adopted CIP into bond and project planning. The council also directed additional committee work on topics raised during the meeting (for example, the public-safety committees ALPR review and planned CIF project timing).
