THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506190035
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Currituck County residents will have an opportunity to give their two cents' worth on a proposed property tax increase and other budget matters at 8 p.m. today in the Senior Citizens Center.
The county's overall 1995-96 budget of $41.5 million is up for public comment at the Board of Commissioners meeting, which was moved because of repairs being made at the county courthouse.
The preliminary budget, which is still subject to change before it is adopted by July 1, calls for a 9-cent increase in real estate property taxes, also called ad valorem taxes.
Currituck County voters agreed to pay more on their land taxes two years ago when they approved a bond referendum to fund a new county high school.
The $16.5 million set aside to build the new facility - which will be about twice the size of the high school in Barco - is the largest expenditure in the new budget.
Also up for a public hearing Monday is a $1 telephone surcharge to fund an enhanced 911 system in the mostly rural county.
County telephone customers would pay $12 a year for new equipment and an expanded database that would provide more accurate information for emergency services.
Among other things, the system would require every home in Currituck County to be given addresses with street names, rather than a rural route and box number.
The improved 911 service is part of a geographic information system, or GIS, that the county hopes to initiate next year. The GIS also would enhance services such as tax assessments, records management, and planning and zoning once completed in the next five years.
``A lot of people have been begging for it in the northern part of the county,'' said Finance Director Dan Scanlon.
``There hasn't been that much said about it,'' he said, ``and we don't want people to be blindsided when people see that dollar added to their monthly telephone bills.''
Another item in the upcoming budget is funding for two new full-time deputies. Those deputies, and two already employeed by the county, would be paid for by the county's occupancy tax. The two officers already on the rolls had been paid from ad valorem taxes, like the county's other deputies.
Under the new budget, the tourist tax, expected to generate $922,500, would foot the bill, because their services would be related to the tourist industry. by CNB