The budget that Roanoke Rapids City Council passed for the upcoming fiscal year “is way too low.”

That was the feeling of city resident Ephraim Brodsky, the sole person to speak during a public hearing on the matter Tuesday night. “My main issue with this budget is that it’s way too low and we’re ignoring the fact that last year we got it wrong.”

Brodsky had come before the council last year arguing that in a revelation year the panel did not need to lower the tax rate. “Everyone insisted ‘no, no, no, we have enough money. We’re not going to need to go into the fund balance. We’re going to be revenue neutral.’”

That wasn’t the case, he said. “We fell short and during the last city council meeting there was a budget amendment for over a million dollars to catch up to that shortfall.”

Brodsky said if 1 cent generates $136,591 over a million dollars that’s not 1 cent. “That’s not 2 cents. That’s closer to 10 cents and that’s what we fell short of last year — that’s what we dipped into the fund balance for. Now to balance this new budget, we’re dipping back into the fund balance for another $700,000, which based on $136,000 per cent, that’s looking at five or six more cents. But that’s not going to get us out of the water either because this budget doesn’t have any growth. This budget isn’t focused on the future.”

There’s three parts that should be included in every budget, he said.

There’s the strategic planning portion of the budget that involves long-term plans; the capital budgeting that involves evaluating major projects; and the operations portion that focuses on short-term plans and includes the operating budgets prepared by department heads. “This entire budget is an operations budget,” he said. “There is not one vestige of strategic planning in this budget. There is not one dollar dedicated to capital budgeting in this budget. Everything is operations and we’re failing the operations portion, too. We’re failing.”

He referenced City Manager Kelly Traynham’s budget message in which she said the strategic investment in the budget is preparing the city for growth by investing in employee retention, community safety and technology. “Well, I’m here to tell you the year is 2025. We do not have one full time dedicated IT person in the city — not one. (In) 2025, that we don’t have an IT person on staff — that’s criminal.”

The concept of revenue neutral budgeting refers to keeping the government revenues flat, he said, even when the tax structure changes. “That doesn’t mean the dollar ten years ago is the dollar today because a dollar was worth a lot more ten years ago than it’s worth today.”

He said inflation has gone up 47 percent based on the government’s Social Security index since 2010. “That means one dollar in 2010 has the purchasing power of $1.47 today.”

After the revelation last year, a homeowner who paid $464 in taxes in 2010 paid $516 in 2024. “That’s an increase of 11 percent but inflation changed 47 percent,” Brodsky said. “This person is getting a deal. They’re getting a 36 percent savings over what they paid in 2010. Where does that savings go? That’s at the expense of us. That’s at the expense of the people in the city.”

But, he said, over 50 percent of the people in Roanoke Rapids are renting. “So who are we really helping out by keeping these property values and rates low? We’re not helping the people who live here and work here. We’re helping the out of town investors … It’s not helping our kids. It’s not helping our future.”

Revenue neutral, he told the council, means matching “what we could have purchased in 2010 with what we could have purchased today.”

Looking at needs of the parks and recreation department, he said there are no capital needs. “These are operational needs.”

He said the county charges the city for a significant amount of things. “In fact, we don’t collect the entire 64 cents. We’re giving them a two cents collection fee to collect the money for us. They’re charging us for 911 — $3.5 million we’ve paid them since 2010 when we didn’t have to pay them a penny since then. They’re never going to pay that money back. We may not have to pay moving forward but we’re not getting that $3.5 million back.”

Then, he said before Mayor Emery Doughtie called for time, the city is not investing in parks. “The county built a $500,000 park for Scotland Neck,” he said, referring to money provided by Trillium to build the inclusive playground. “In the last census Scotland Neck had 50 children under five. We have a thousand.”

Brodsky, referring to a handout he gave to the council, said, “Hopefully you all look at that sheet and you figure out how to get the money.”