Increasing fees, building housing and raising pay: How will Charlotte’s 2023 budget affect you?
The Charlotte City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the city’s $3.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2023.
The budget includes pay raises and bonuses for city employees as well as a starting pay increase for people employed by the police and fire departments. It also includes raised fees for some services and street parking, but tax rates won’t increase.
The 2023 budget will begin on July 1, the start of the city’s next fiscal year.
Here’s a breakdown of some significant items in the budget.
Affordable housing
The budget includes about $100 million for affordable housing efforts to use toward down payment assistance and the creation and rehabilitation of affordable units.
The $100 million will fund:
▪ 900 new units
▪ 200 units acquired and/or rehabilitated for low- to moderate-income residents
▪ 200 down payment assistance loans
▪ 60 neighborhood matching grants to award economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods with art, beautification, festivals, special events and public safety
▪ 90 physical barriers removed for ADA compliance
▪ Programs to increase public safety and beautification
Fee increases
There are fee increases for services such as solid waste and water.
▪ The increase for water would be 3.54%, or about $2.49 a month for the average home owner.
▪ The storm water service fee would increase 3.8% on average, about 34 cents a month.
▪ Curbside pickup would go up 92 cents a month.
Taxes
There are also no tax increases, layoffs, furloughs or reductions in core services.
City employee pay
The approved budget includes salary hikes for some employees at 8% over the next year. The money is meant to help recruit and retain people as companies and municipalities across the country have struggled to find labor. City workers also have protested over their compensation.
The city will also set aside $2 million for employees who can’t live in the city because they can’t afford a deposit or down payment on a home.
The bonuses and pay raises for employees across the city include:
8% raise for all hourly employees. This would go into effect in two stages, with a 4% increase in July and a 4% increase in January.
2% of salary bonus for all hourly, salaried and public safety workers. There’s a $1,000 bonus minimum for those groups.
An additional 2.5% salary increase for any worker whose labor requires a commercial driver’s license and a 2.5% increase for people working second and third shifts.
4% merit pool raise for all salaried employees who don’t work in public safety.
3% increase for all public safety employees.
10.5% increase to the starting pay for all police and fire department employees — 9% by July and 10.5% by January.
Parking
The street parking rate for uptown and South End will jump from $1 an hour to $1.50, and the city will start charging people to park on Saturdays. Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones said the city hasn’t changed rates since the late ‘90s and expects to generate an additional $700,000 a year from the fee increase.
Jones said revenue from the parking fee increase should help deal with cuts the city has seen for street improvement projects.
Police compensation
The budget includes a 5.5% bump in the police budget to account for increases in compensation, health care and retirement.
This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 10:42 AM.
