Mayor Charles Meeker gave his annual State of the City address Monday at the Raleigh Convention Center in downtown Raleigh.
Meeker used the opportunity to address the city to propose a new funding plan for the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center, which is expected to cost $205 million.
The money to fund the Public Safety Center is to be drawn from an increase in city property taxes. The tax increase was initially proposed by Raleigh City Manager J. Russell Allen and was recommended to set at $0.375.
Monday, Meeker said the building could be completed with just a one cent increase in property taxes, down from the initial recommended increase, according to the News & Observer.
According to ABC News, the proposed tax increase would be phased in over the course of the next two years, with a half-cent increase levied in 2011 and another one in 2012. After the full tax is implemented, it will be in effect for the 25 years which it is expected to take to complete the building.
A standard home of about $200,000 would see a property tax increase of about $20 a year under Meeker’s proposal, as opposed to the $60 a year increase which would have occurred with the initial recommendation.
Meeker hopes to make up the cost of reducing the tax increase by deferring expenses from other public works projects, including sanitation and street maintenance.
The initial recommendation made by Allen would have raised taxes by 8 percent, but would have allowed for the continuation of public works projects as well as remote operations projects which include solid waste services and operations and maintenance for the city’s park and sanitation crews.
According to News & Observer, Meeker’s move is expected to be more appealing to the city council members, who have been debating on the fate of the project for several weeks. The eight-person council is currently split down the middle on whether or not the city should endorse the project, with three of them calling for a clean slate on the project.
Meeker and his supporting council members have said that moving forward with the project now could save up to $50 million in the long run in construction costs and interests rates. $22 million has already been spent on the project.
The Public Safety Center would be a glass tower built downtown and would house Raleigh’s police, fire, emergency communications and information technology departments, according to News & Observer.
The building will be 17 stories and named after Raleigh’s first and only black mayor, Clarence E. Lightner.
According to the City of Raleigh Federal Legislative Agenda for 2011, the Public Safety Center is an effort to consolidate the City’s public safety operations and local government offices.
According to the Agenda, a centralized location for public safety operations would enhance readiness and effectiveness of the city’s public safety agencies as well as create at least 2,893 new jobs.
The building will be LEED Gold certified and be built to meet the City’s minimum requirements for environmental stewardship and conservation.
According to News & Observer, Meeker is expected to discuss the Public Safety Center when the city council meets on Tuesday and will call for a vote on the project if he feels he has the support.
