The Spruce Pine Town Council unanimously passed the second reading of its 2025-26 budget in its last June meeting.
Previously, a first reading of the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget ordinance resulted in a divided vote.
Town Manager Daniel Stines explained the FY26 budget ordinance to the council members.
“The following amendments have been made to the budget since the first reading: The first amendment would be (that) the 2.5 percent COLA (cost-of-living-adjustment) increases that were proposed for an amount of $46,903.81 have been removed,” Stines said. “The proposed 0-3 percent performance-based merit increases for an amount of $61,630.70 have been removed. Those funds have been redirected into an item of what’s referred to as ‘compensation and classification study results’ for a total amount of $108,534.51.”
Stines further explained that the council will later have a chance to consider information from a North Carolina League of Municipalities study about the town’s personnel needs before deciding how best to address compensation issues.
At the previous reading, “no” vote Rocky Buchanan had expressed concern that merit raises can be bad for personnel morale, causing resentment to form among staff members.
Buchanan had also previously expressed concern that hiring a full-time code and zoning enforcement officer — a line item in both the first and second readings of the budget — was not the best use of Spruce Pine’s funds. However, the town has attempted to hire a part-time code enforcement officer for several months with no success.
“One question I have is on the code enforcement officer. Has the zoning been taken out of that?” Buchanan asked.
“No, sir, it has not,” Stines replied.
Stines further explained that the budget offers the yet-to-be-hired code and zoning officer a salary of $50,000 with an additional $20,000 budgeted for that person’s benefits package.
The budget was approved without further discussion.