We need 7 votes to Pass a Budget Focused on the Housing Needs of City Residents

City Council will vote on the Budget on Thursday. We need to make a wise decision, because the City's projections show that our expenses are going up faster than revenues.

The Tax Stabilization Fund is our City’s savings account. It is our only cushion to manage the transition to a balanced budget.

On this chart, the red line is expenses and the green line is revenues. The yellow section of each blue bar is the amount that will be needed from the Tax Stabilization reserve to cover expenses in the future. You can see that more dollars from the Tax Stabilization Fund are needed every year.

While the City figures out how to increase revenue to match expenses - like identifying all the big commercial properties that have been underassessed and fixing the errors so they pay their fair share of property taxes- we need that cushion to avoid big tax increases for residents or face more of other strategies the city uses to plug budget holes like parking tickets, red light tickets, and code violation fines.

This is why it makes no sense to give $8.4 million to developers and another $2 million to prepare lots for development like the administration has proposed.

Several City Council Members are proposing an alternative plan that will cost less and benefit city residents more.

We need 7 votes. Ask your City Council Members to support a budget focused on meeting the housing needs of city residents, not developers.

The administration's plan:

Use $12 million from Tax Stabilization Fund to:

😮 Give $8.4 million to developers

😮Spend $2 million on vacant lots to prepare them for development.

🤔Pay for architectural and engineering support for developers: $200,000

🤔Give Land Bank $500,000

😀Homeowner repair program: $500,000

😢Provide housing assistance: $250,000

Our plan:

Use $7.5 million from Tax Stabilization Fund to pay for:

➡ Home-owner repair program with a waitlist, not a lottery: $500,000

➡ Security deposit + first month rent assistance: $500,000

➡ Emergency rental assistance: $500,000

➡ Eviction prevention: $500,000

➡ Fix property tax assessment errors: $500,000

➡ Put $5 million in an Affordable Housing Trust to build housing that will meet high priority housing needs, including:

✔ Shelter beds and supportive housing to help the homeless move into housing.

✔ Homes for the 1/2 of Wilmington families that have incomes of less than $58,000 and homes that have rents of $1,250 for a one-bedroom, $1,370 for a two-bedroom, and $1,500 for a three-bedroom