For this Ask INDY, we dig into smaller items in the recently approved city of Durham budget.
On June 16, the Durham City Council approved $722 million for next year’s budget. Major highlights include investments in public safety, transportation, employee pay, and infrastructure projects.
But in a growing metro like Durham (the budget a decade ago was $388 million), those hundreds of millions are split up nearly a hundred million ways, and line items can go from grand to microscopic.
Today’s Ask INDY submission, from Reddit user safe_wallaby228, inquires about the latter: A lot of news organizations are posting about similar large items on the budget, but I’d love to know if there are smaller budget additions that you think citizens may be interested in as well.
I’m sure this is of interest to everyone, especially the Reddit watchdogs. City council members each make $45,560 plus $53,761 for the mayor, totalling $327,121. Since 2022, their salaries have been tied to the Durham Minimum Livable Wage; the city council just received a raise thanks to an increase from $19.58 to $21.90 per hour. City council members are not precluded from having other jobs, but voters may be put off by potential conflicts of interest and there’s only so many hours in a day.
Next time you visit Durham Central Park, look out for the totem pole with arrows scribed with a city name and distance. Each represents one of ten Sister Cities. The program aims to maintain friendly, intercultural relationships with cities across the world, and received $18,500 this year, or about .002562 percent of the total budget.
When I was a student at Brogden Middle School, some of my classmates hosted exchange students from sister city Toyama, Japan. The program’s budget allocation is barely a raindrop in the ocean, but Durham’s shimai toshi program signals to communities across the world that Durham is a welcoming place.
Other communities may have given up on DEI, but Durham is committed to planting 1,300 trees in communities most affected by climate and economic hardship using an unspecified amount of Inflation Reduction Act funding. The city is a long way from replacing all the trees that have been cut down in service of our housing needs, but 1,300 is a start.
The potential two-way conversion of Roxboro and Mangum Street is an ongoing saga with many twists and turns, but the city remains committed to the idea of reimagining the streets. The budget includes $1.2 million (.17 percent) to continue moving the conversation down the road. Stay tuned for an update on this project from me soon.
You could spend days diving into Durham’s budget and still not completely understand what it takes to keep the city financially solvent. But if you’re a government wonk and want to learn more about how it all fits together, sign up for the Durham Neighborhood College, or join a local board or commission.
