Full name: Renee Miller
Party affiliation: Republican
Campaign website: votereneemiller.com
1) In 300 words or less, please give our readers your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What prior experience will make you an effective member of Cary’s town council?
Cary should provide for the Common Good. The basics we use to live together in a city are foundational: public safety and public works. We need police and fire services that can respond when we need them. Water, sewer, sanitation and roads allow us to safely live close together.
Secondly, our town policies should support Community. Citizens need the opportunity to influence government. This requires transparency and responsiveness. We also need to build a place that people know their neighbors. A safe, welcoming environment is important for everyone.
Open space, trees, and conservation have been important in Cary’s planning. Historic preservation and fiscal conservation should be added to the list of things we should include in planning.
Common Sense solutions like keeping taxes low benefit both those who live here and those who want to come. It allows new people to have lower mortgage payments, since taxes are collected in escrow. It also allows those who have built this community to continue to live here, even if they are on a fixed income. In addition, development that is in keeping with the surrounding neighborhoods will help maintain our high standards.
2) What would your priorities be as a member of the town council? Please identify three of the most pressing issues Cary currently faces and how you believe the town should address them.
Finding the new fiscal balance point is going to be very important. We need to keep taxes as low as we can so that people can afford to live here while we still have the amenities that define our quality of life. We should review spending to be sure that we are spending our taxpayers hard-earned dollars in the best and the right places. We should review development regulations and norms to identify ways to help building be more affordable. We need to explore public-private or foundation partnerships for projects that may be outside the town’s current budget objectives.
3) What’s the best or most important thing the Cary town council has done in the past year? Additionally, name a decision you believe the town should have handled differently. Please explain your answers.
One thing that stands out to me that the Council did recently is that a number of capital projects were placed on a list to be reassessed and possibly re-prioritized. Sixty-eight projects totally some $88MM were placed on that reassess list. Cary has been able to complete many projects while it was growing very fast. Now that growth is slowing down and older projects are requiring attention, the Town needs to evaluate the best ways to move forward on these projects. Safety should be a priority for selecting projects.
4) President Trump is working to ramp up deportations and curtail visas. At the same time, the state legislature has passed laws requiring agencies to cooperate with ICE. What do you think the town council can or should do to ensure safe, welcoming communities for immigrants in light of these policies?
Cary has always welcomed immigrants. Our police chief recently stated that the Cary Police will follow the current law, as defined by the legislature and the courts.
5) As climate change leads to more intense rainfall, communities are at greater risk of inland flooding, such as the historic floods in parts of the Triangle caused by Tropical Storm Chantal in July. How would you like the town council to address climate resilience, particularly flooding?
I took the opportunity to spend some time in and around Downtown Cary during the heavy rain in August. I observed a great deal of water coming off buildings and bubbling up from the storm drains. I am not confident that we are doing enough to effectively remove the stormwater as we build more impervious surfaces. The Downtown Cary Park did seem to do its job as a catch basin, but water still backed up into some streets. I am concerned that with aging infrastructure, flooding could become a more serious issue.
6) Federal funding cuts this year have hit the Triangle particularly hard, from cancelled grants to layoffs, and local government officials are having to make difficult decisions about what to fund and how. What are your ideas for how the town council can prioritize competing funding needs, close funding gaps, and support impacted residents?
Cary’s budget is largely independent from intergovernmental funding. We take care of more than 90% of our needs using other sources. Continuing to attract businesses and grow our job market will create opportunities for our neighbors be able to stay in our community.
7) Describe what sustainable growth and development mean to you. Additionally, what is another municipality you believe has made smart decisions related to growth and development that could be similarly implemented in Cary?
Cary has grown for at least the past 30 years by expanding its single-family suburban housing along with shopping centers along major thoroughfares. At this time more than 90% of the land available for building within the town limits has been developed. Land prices have skyrocketed, opening opportunities for redevelopment in many areas. Going forward, building will include higher density developments. It will be important for them to be located so that they complement the community surrounding them. Building high quality, durable buildings, maybe even with a touch of character is desirable. It will be important to maintain a wide variety of housing choices. We need to be sure that we keep the opportunity to own property available, especially for those first-time buyers who want to get on the property ladder.
8) Last year, Cary voters rejected a $560 million parks bond referendum. Do you think this was the right move? Under what circumstances would you support a new parks bond? More broadly, what level and types of investments should Cary be making in its parks in the coming years?
Just before Cary voters rejected the 2024 Bonds, the town enacted a record tax increase – 8 cents above revenue neutral following an enormous increase in property valuations. While the tax rate itself is still low for Wake County, the Cary taxpayers felt the increase in the dollar amount they paid. The increase in taxes paid meant that there was no appetite for raising taxes further. There’s still no appetite for higher taxes. It’s the issue I hear about most from voters even today.
If we propose new parks or facilities bonds in the future, I hope we’ll keep plans simpler, less extravagant and demonstrate a clearer need than we did in 2024.
9) Cary voters also rejected a $30 million affordable housing bond referendum last election cycle. Do you think this was the right choice? Under what circumstances would you support a new affordable housing bond? How would you like to see the town approach affordability issues over the next few years?
The housing bond was largely caught up in the concerns about taxes and sheer size of the parks bond. Cary has historically worked on affordable housing through not for profits and programs like Healthy Homes Cary. Supporting and promoting these initiatives seems to be the best direction.
10) How can Cary improve its pedestrian infrastructure? With regional commuter rail effectively off the table, how should it look to improve public transit options for residents?
Improving pedestrian infrastructure will take prioritization because sidewalks cost so much more than they did just a few years ago. The first priority should be solving obvious safety problems, especially around schools and parks. That should be followed by completing existing sidewalk gaps.
Public transit seems to be lacking one thing that might encourage greater use in Cary: connection to the airport. Regular, scheduled transit to the airport would reach out to commuters who would just as soon not deal with traffic and parking at RTP. Using this kind of commuter transit could help build more acceptance of our local transit.
11) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
Comment on this story at [email protected].