By Matt Talhelm
WRAL
Proposed bonds worth hundreds of millions of dollars would pay for public school construction, parks and Wake Tech expansion.
RALEIGH, NC –
Wake County is proposing a $531 million bond to pay for public school construction and a $353 million bond to expand Wake Technical Community College.
“You’re adding more to the cost of families, and that’s something we ought to be concerned about,” said OneWake member Rev. Mykal Brickhouse.
OneWake is a grassroots group advocating for property tax relief.
“Is this the right time?” Brickhouse asked. “Are we going to be overtaxing people who are already heavy burdened?”
The possibility of higher taxes would come from two proposed bonds that would be on the ballot for Wake County voters in November: One for public school construction and the other for projects at Wake Tech Community College.
Wake Tech President Scott Ralls said the college has a $1 billion impact each year on the county.
“If we were shrinking or we were standing still, we wouldn’t need to grow, but what you get from this for our students and our community is return on investment,” Ralls said.
Ralls explained his hopes for the bond to pass to add more funding for Wake Tech.
“Our hope is to continue to do that with the facilities that will allow us to expand to meet both the expansion opportunities in our county, but also to contribute to the rich opportunities for jobs that are coming to our region and are growing in our region,” Ralls said. “It’s all about jobs for us.”