Government Matters

Hope you had a restful holiday weekend.  Memorial Day is sometimes considered the beginning of a new season and Council, Aldermen, commissioners, and eventually the General Assembly will recess for summer. But first they have to an adopt a budget, and we have to do some more advocacy.  Read more below and make your plans to study and speak up, before you leave for summer vacation! 

Budget season

It's budget season, everybody. Municipalities and Orange County are hosting public hearings on their budgets, and the Town of Chapel Hill is looking at a two-cent tax increase. View the budget documents for  Town of Chapel Hill, Town of Carrboro, and Orange County and consider weighing in (other folks are definitely making their voices heard). See below ("Save the date to advocate") for the upcoming work sessions on the Town of Chapel Hill's budget and the remaining public hearing for the county's budget. Also the NC Senate gave approval to a $20.5 billion state budget. Stay updated on what's going on in Raleigh by checking out the NC Chamber's legislation tracker and these outlets for Capitol coverage:  WRAL Capitol Coverage; N&O's Under the Dome; and  Twitter search #ncga.

Be a leader

Are you new to our community? Are you wanting to answer our calls to action, but need to know more? Our Chamber and Partnership for a Sustainable Community have expanded our  Leadership Chapel Hill-Carrboro program to include Executive Leadership, a two-day conference designed to strengthen your connections with our community's movers and shakers and engage you in meaningful dialogue about government, education, community challenges, entrepreneurship and economic development. Consider registering for this unique opportunity or pass along to the newest member of your team.

School's almost out

School's almost out, but we still have some learning to do. Join us Thursday, June 6 for our monthly Economic Development & Public Policy Committee. Todd LoFrese, assistant superintendent with  Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will give us a briefing on the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO), which can have a huge impact on both residential and commercial development. Also, we'll hear from Councilman Gene Pease about a new proposal to restructure advisory boards at the Town of Chapel Hill. Come learn more, and then we'll let you go on summer vacation.

Join the conversation Recently, there has been a lot of talk about "community engagement" and "citizen input."  How do we gather it? How do we incorporate it?  I worry that the first response is, "let's create a steering committee" or "we should host a public information meeting." But I think the key question needs to be: How do we engage more citizens WITHOUT more meetings and more committees? Why am I asking this? Because most of the current meetings and the current committees leave a lot of people out of the conversation. Read the rest of my column at Chapelboro.com and let me know YOUR ideas on engaging the public on these important issues.