Wake, Raleigh and Durham voters should OK bonds for vital public investments

People are moving to Raleigh and throughout Wake County for the quality of life, especially good schools and a network of parks and greenways.

But keeping that quality of life comes with a price, as evidenced by major bond issues on the November ballot. All of them are targeted toward real needs. Failing to allow the borrowing now could hurt the quality of education and public recreation for years to come.

We support a yes vote for all the bond issues.

Raleigh Parks Bond

The last Raleigh Parks bond was in 2015. The city has since added more than 30,000 residents. That growth alone would justify more investment in parks and pools, but this year’s $275 million bond proposal seeks more than expansion. It also aims to make the investment in parks and recreational facilities more equitable by focusing on long-neglected areas of Southeast Raleigh and areas of North Raleigh where growth has outpaced the expansion of parks.

The bond would provide $54 million to build a new aquatics center and make other improvements at John Chavis Historic Park in Southeast Raleigh. It also could provide $29.5 million for a new community center and fix flooding problems at Tarboro Road Park. North Raleigh would benefit from park improvements and new greenway connections. The bond would also provide $15 million to address building improvement needs and growing programming demands at the Sertoma Arts Center at Shelley Lake Park.

Other park bond highlights include $43 million to construct an 18-acre Gibson Play Plaza at Dix Park and design phase 2 of the park’s development. $11.5 million would go toward creating a 14-acre natural urban park off Peace Street in central Raleigh on the site is the former Devereux Meadow baseball stadium. It is now a city maintenance facility.

The Raleigh parks bond would add between 3 and 4 cents per $100 of assessed property value and cost the average homeowner about $100 more a year.

Wake County school bond

Wake County voters are being asked to approve a $530 million bond for Wake Public Schools. The bond will help pay for seven major school renovations and construction of five new schools, including a new high school serving west Cary and Morrisville. To have good schools, Wake needs good school buildings.

The school bond would increase the annual property tax bill by $21 for a Wake County home at the median assessed value of $337,000.

Wake Tech Bond

Wake voters are being asked to approve a $353 million bond. The money will go mostly to buildings used to train workers in health sciences and tech fields. The new construction would include a 120,000-square-foot building at the Health Sciences Campus for training nurses. The bond will also pay to move Wake Tech’s Western Wake Campus, now in a leased building, to a permanent 34-acre campus at the intersection of U.S. Highway 1, N.C. Highway 55.

The Wake Tech bond would cost the average Wake County homeowner another $14 a year in property taxes.

Three Durham Bonds

Durham County has three bonds up for consideration. There’s a $423.5 million bond for Durham Public Schools, a $112.7 million bond for Durham Technical Community College, and a notably smaller $14 million bond for the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science. Aside from updating current infrastructure, the Durham Schools bond would bring two new schools to the district, and the Durham Tech bond helps cover the cost of two new educational buildings.

All three of these bonds are focused on public works that would improve Durham’s quality of life and invest in the youngest Bull City residents. The cost for voters would be up to 2.5 cents on the property tax rate, or $25 more on every $100,000 of a home’s worth. The county would still have a lower property tax rate than Orange County, but it is a jump that may hurt some during our current economic inflation.

We recommend voting yes to all three bonds, but would like the county to prioritize assisting seniors and other low-income families to navigate Durham County’s current tax relief program once the time to pay comes around.