The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will begin the budget process for fiscal year 2018 during its meeting on Tuesday, March 21. The budget season kicks off with funding requests from 46 nonprofits. Collectively, the organizations are asking for a total of nearly $11 million.
Each nonprofit will have up to five minutes to pitch its cause and justify its return on county investment. Requests are as small as $5,000 (Historic Resources Commission) and top out at $4.2 million (Asheville Housing Authority). That latter request is to support the planned redevelopment of the Lee Walker Heights public housing neighborhood off Biltmore Avenue just south of downtown as a mixed-income community.
Other requests on the higher end of the spectrum include:
- Town of Woodfin is asking for $2 million for the Woodfin Greenway project.
- Thomas Wolfe Auditorium is asking for $800,000 for renovations.
- Asheville Art Museum is asking for $500,000 for preservation, renovation and expansion projects.
- Pack Square Cultural Project is asking for $395,000 for maintenance and operations support.
- Asheville Community Theatre is asking for $300,000 to “secure its future.”
Commissioners will only be hearing presentations; the officials will not make any decisions on which nonprofits receive funding during the meeting. Commissioners do not have to approve a budget until June 30, when Fiscal Year 2017 ends. However, they will be working on components of the overall budget until then. The current budget is $413,574,951 and has about $1.2 in nonprofit funding.
The presentation session is open to the public and is slated to take about four hours. If you would like to attend, it will be held on Tuesday, March 21, at 1:30 p.m. at 200 College St.
Below is a complete list of nonprofits, the projects they are pitching and the amount of money they are asking for. You can also read about every presentation here.
Above is a list of the 46 nonprofits requesting money from the county and the intended project that funding would go toward. Graphic courtesy of Buncombe County
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.