Residents should also expect a $1 increase in their solid waste services fees for truck and cart replacements. <\/p>\n
While Councilors held a public hearing on Tuesday, many of the people in attendance were there for other issues on the agenda. <\/p>\n
Read on for some of the budget comments, in some cases followed by our explanation. Full video of the hearing can be found on the city\u2019s website<\/a>. <\/p>\n Keith Wilder, president Raleigh Professional Firefighter Association<\/a> City employees will see an average merit increase of about 3 percent. The budget also recommends increasing the city\u2019s retirement contribution from 2 percent to 3 percent. Health insurance premiums will stay the same. <\/p>\n Kia Baker, Interfaith Food Shuttle <\/a> Ariella Monti \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p> Kia Baker<\/p><\/div>\n Debra King, CASA<\/a> Sara Hansen, Tammy Lynn Center<\/a> Interfaith Food Shuttle, CASA and the Tammy Lynn Center were three of the human services organizations that were awarded funding by the city. The total human services appropriation comes out to about $1.26 million. <\/p>\n Interfaith Food Shuttle and the Tammy Lynn Center were awarded $100,000. CASA was awarded $89,000. <\/p>\n Vivian McCoy, Southeast Raleigh Assembly<\/a> Ariella Monti \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p> Octavia Rainey<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Capital Area Transit and Triangle Transit will be raising their rates this year<\/a> and in 2016. <\/p>\n Karen Rindge, WakeUp Wake County<\/a> State leaders cut the privilege license tax last week, which could mean a $7 million loss for the city<\/a>. <\/p>\n In a couple of cases residents took the open mic as an opportunity to voice their opinion on issues that weren\u2019t necessarily related to the budget. <\/p>\n Elizabeth Gardner, Falls Whitewater Park<\/a> Ariella Monti \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p> Elizabeth Garner and daughter Reese<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n A large part of the meeting\u2019s crowd was made up of people supporting the Falls White Water Park, which was not included in the proposed park bond. Parks staff will present more information about the possible inclusion of the park at the next Council meeting. <\/p>\n Hope Turlington The budget includes $470,820 to cover the cost of the original Dix lease, leftover from the current budget. The proposed budget doesn\u2019t include any other funding for the acquisition or development of the park. Mental health advocates have asked the city<\/a> to use the property to support programs that benefit people with mental illness. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tuesday evening\u2019s Raleigh City Council meeting brought a large crowd, but only a fraction were there to speak on the proposed budget. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24029,"featured_media":21617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,15],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cAs you know, we\u2019ve been down here every year for quite a few years speaking during the public budget hearing and we always came in with a lot of optimism, left with a lot of optimism, but things didn\u2019t always seem to go our way. I think Mr. Hall has made an excellent recommendation for the employee benefit package.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe know that it\u2019s very important that people eat. People who don\u2019t eat don\u2019t survive, people who don\u2019t eat well, don\u2019t thrive and so we just want to thank you for your support and thank you in advance for your continued support of our work to build a food secure community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Kia](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Budget-Hearing_Kia-Baker_AM-771x514.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n\u201cOur waiting list in Wake County is 560 people. We\u2019re trying to do more to scale up and develop more housing and we need your continued support.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe are expecting to deliver over 1,115 hours of childcare for early childhood for children who are at risk or who have already been diagnosed with concerns. This funding is crucial for the intervention services to both the children and the family and receive it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cI would like to thank our new city manager. I think he\u2019s hit the ground running and he\u2019s doing a mighty fine job. We certainly, certainly appreciate him and all of the support you\u2019ve given to SERA. We\u2019ve been very good stewards of the money that you\u2019ve given us and we continue to be and we hope that you continue to support us.\u201d
\n<\/em>
\nOctavia Rainey
\n\u201cI have been following the city\u2019s budget since 1976. I just think being fair in transportation is crucial … I hope that when you look at African Americans like me, who struggle to make ends meet that fare increase are not fair. If you are trying to go back to 1955 and get us off the bus with increased fares, you have succeeded.\u201d<\/em>
\n![\"Octavia](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Budget-Hearing_Octavia-Rainey_AM-336x224.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n\u201cWe recognize that the city manager has proposed an increase for to make sure our roads get repaved and taken care of. And while nobody likes a tax increase, we\u2019re going to get hit with reductions because of business license fee decrease and other things. WakeUp does support this increase in property taxes to pave the roads.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cI was thrilled to be a part of the committee for the system plan that was presented \u2026 and very happy to see that the white water park was included in the system plan. I know that it did not make the initial cut for the bond, but we\u2019re here to say that it\u2019s important to us. We really think that this is going to be a great thing for Raleigh.\u201d <\/em>![\"Elizabeth](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Budget-Hearing_Elizabeth-Garner-Daugher-Reese_AM-336x224.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n\u201cPlease stand down on the Dix issue. We have too many sick dying in the woods and in prison they\u2019re being beaten. This is not what what we\u2019re about. This is not honorable. This not godly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n