Town Looks to Tighten Belt,
Rebuild Financial Reserves
By Bill White
Under the watchful eye of mentor Chris Jones, Sara Anderson applies a coat
of resin to the surfboard she constructed as part of her Graduation Project.
Sara will graduate from West Carteret High this spring. See story page 6.
Mandatory Graduation Projects
Rely on Community Support
By Bill White
Pine Knoll Shores has the financial
resources to make it through the end of
the current fiscal year on June 30 without
further depleting its financial reserves.
That's the preliminary assessment by a
representative of the Local Government
Finance Division of the North Carolina
State Treasurer's Department who spent
St. Patrick's Day in PKS pouring over the
revenues and expenditures involved in
the town's 2007-08 budget.
The visit was prompted by the realization
late last year following an audit of
the 2006-07 fiscal year that the town's
finances were seriously out of balance,
with expenditures exceeding revenues.
Further investigation showed that the gap
between revenues and expenditures had
persisted for several years and resulted
in a severe decline in the town's financial
reserves.
The discoveries prompted a wave of
rumors, speculation and dire predictions
that the town was on the verge of having
to institute draconian measures that could
increase taxes and drastically reduce
services, including eventual elimination
of local police and fire forces in favor of
depending on county law enforcement
agencies and reliance on other fire
capabilities on the island.
The rumor mill reached such proporti ons
Benjamin Hawgood ponders the pail
of treasures he unearthed during the
annual Easter Egg Hunt March 15 in
Gamer Park. Story on page 3
that Town Manager Brian Kramer
addressed the situation in a detailed
report published in the March issue of
The Shoreline and then in person at a town
meeting March 6 that drew a packed
house of some 130 people to the town
hall meeting room.
The two initiatives zeroed in on facts
and put a damper on the wild speculation.
Kramer, cast in the role of point man to
handle a long-smoldering problem after
less than a year on the job, explained that
the situation had its roots some five years
ago when the town began collecting the
sand tax to pay off $8 million in voter-
approved bonds issued to finance beach
renourishment.
Collection of the sand tax, when added
to the ad valorem (property) taxes the
town was already collecting, effectively
doubled the amount of sales and use taxes
the town receives from the state.
How much the town gets in sales and
use taxes is determined by the amount of
ad valorem tax and sand tax it collects;
in other words, the sum of both taxes.
The more of both of these taxes collected
the more sales and use tax funds from
the state.
The fact that a large increase in the town's
share of sales and use taxes from the state
would become available to help pay off
the beach renourishment bonds was one of
the arguments put forth by officials to win
voter approval for the bond issue. After
passage of the bond referendum, officials
put in place a formula to determine how
much of the sand and use taxes would
be devoted to the Beach Escrow account
each year.
Tliat has been done and Kramer notes
that the Beach Escrow account boasts a
healthy balance of $4.3 million, putting
the town in a position to pay off the
bonds early and save substantial sums
in interest costs.
The problem, he explains, developed
because while approximately half of
Fine tuning is the order of the day at
West Carteret High School as faculty
members are at pains to develop a set
of smooth working procedures through
which students can produce the Graduation
Projects that will be a requirement for
graduation beginning in 2010.
The idea for the Graduation Projects was
bom some two decades ago in communities
around the southern Oregon/northern
California border in an area where high
school dropout rates had reached alarming
proportions. It was felt that if stu dents could
pursue a project of their own choosing and
in which they were interested it would give
them an incentive to stay in school and
complete their education.
The experiment proved so successful
that the concept has been gradually
spreading across the nation, expanding
in scope as it goes. Today it is felt that the
Graduation Projects are not only beneficial
to students who may be struggling along
the educational path, but to all students,
right up to high achievers.
The process, experience indicates, gives
students an opportunity to put into practice
what they have learned during nearly
(Graduation Projects) Continued on Page 4
(Financial Reserves) Continued on Page 10
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