Winston-Salem City Council passes revenue-neutral budget

The Winston-Salem City Council unanimously passed its 2009-2010 fiscal year budget during the council’s regular meeting Monday. The big feature of the budget is a property tax decrease from 49 cents per $100 valuation to 46.75 cents per $100 valuation. Ann Jones of the city’s budget office explained the tax decrease is the revenue-neutral rate based on the January 2009 revaluation by the Forsyth County Tax Office. The bad news came in the form of budget cuts. The city implemented several measures to offset the ripple effects of the global economic downturn including no employee pay increases for 2009-2010, the deletion of 32 positions, a number of program cuts and a minimum level of equipment replacement, Jones said. Now, the city council must await the outcome of the state budget process to see if further cuts will have to be made. “Our balanced budget represents an extraordinary achievement in these tough financial times,” councilman Dan Besse said. Mayor Allen Joines pointed out that Winston-Salem has the lowest tax rate of any major city in the state. Joines also cited recently released statistics that reveal the city’s crime rate has dropped by 6 percent as another sign the city has managed to maintain a high quality of life for all its residents in the tough economy. — KTB