• Durham Begins Tough Budget Season
  • Farm Education Campus Moves Forward
  • Wake Forest’s New Mayor
  • UNC SCiLL Investigation Concludes
  • Wake County Schools Summit
Credit: Courtesy of the City of Durham

Good morning, readers.

It’s budget season, and the Durham city council has a long road ahead of it. Federal and state funding is turbulent, and even with a property tax revenue increase driven by growth over the last several years, the city council will have to make hard decisions about how to distribute funds equitably across departments.

One of the decisions at the heart of the discussions thus far is raising staff wages. If the city council wants to adhere to the Durham Minimum Living Wage ordinance it passed in 2019, it will need to raise the city’s lowest-paid workers to $25 an hour, a higher-than-usual jump from the current $21.90.

City council will have the opportunity to hear what other budget priorities residents have at tonight’s public hearing. The final budget is voted on in June.

—Justin

Read the Full Story on INDYWeek.com

The latest from INDY, plus other stories around the state you’ll want to read. Handpicked every day by INDY Editor-in-Chief Sarah Willets.

Credit: Durham County

A Place to Grow

The Durham County Farm Campus, which will offer farming education, gardens, and outdoor education, received $475,000 for its first phase, Kennedy Thomason reports for the INDY.

Credit: Illustration by Nicole Pajor Moore. Courtesy photo; other images via wakeforest.gov and Wikipedia.

New Mayor in Town

Ben Clapsaddle hopes to make his mark as Wake Forest’s first Democratic mayor in decades, Bebe Miller writes for the INDY.

A brick building with trees in front

SCiLL Silence

UNC-Chapel Hill concluded its investigation into months of faculty tension at the School of Civic Life and Leadership, but won’t say what it learned, The Assembly reports.

Sponsored Content

LOCAL: The tight race between Orange County commissioner Earl McKee and challenger Beth Bronson is headed for a recount, WCHL reports.

STATE: The waitlist for subsidized child care is seven times longer than in mid-2024, North Carolina Health News reports.

LOCAL: School districts across central NC are closed today due to the chance of severe thunderstorms and damaging winds, WRAL reports.

Love The INDY? Join the INDY Press Club.
Support the ambitions of local journalism (plus, enjoy a few perks).

Become a Member
  • Learn about the past, present, and future of Dix Park on a guided walking tour this Saturday.
  • Wake County Public School System is holding a two-day family engagement summit, with seminars, speakers, and the annual State of the Schools Address.
  • Duke is apparently now the first ACC school to win football, women’s basketball, and men’s basketball titles in the same year.
  • Did you see the cherry blossoms? Duke Gardens had a whopping 15,000 visitors on Saturday.
Follow INDY Week on Social Media