Orange County Commissioners approved a quarter-cent increase on the property tax rate that will go to the funding of county projects tackling climate change.

After a roughly hour-long discussion among the commissioners Tuesday night, a 4 to 3 vote passed the amendment into the county’s 2019-2020 budget. Commissioner Mark Marcoplos, who proposed the budget amendment earlier this month, said the proposal would help keep the board’s commitments to investing in renewable energy and cutting the county’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, it was an opportunity for Orange County to set an important example.

“We can lead. You gotta believe that there are governments in the area that are watching us to see if a very modest tax increase will be approved by us,” he said. “They would like to see that we have the political will and that we can lead the way, and they can then join in. We can have a multiplying effect.”

But other commissioners weren’t so sure about this amendment. Commissioner Earl McKee said that this amendment’s late introduction into the budget process meant not enough people heard about it.

“The public should have been able to weigh in to this, because this has been probably one of the more vocal issues we have talked about, and one of the more vocal issues the community has talked about, for several years,” he said.

Several other commissioners weighed in with their concerns as well, with some unsure about how the projects funded by this tax hike would be decided on. Commissioner Renee Price said she thought the county was already doing many of the projects that the County Sustainability Office suggested could be done with the money from Marcoplos’s tax hike.

Commission Chair Penny Rich said the fund that would be established by this budget amendment would allow the county to apply to grants that would match county funding, greatly increasing the impact of the money collected.

“I am in support of this, I think it’s a good first step,” Commissioner Rich said. “I don’t think it’s the only money we’re going to be spending on making sure we are taking care of our environment and leaving it for our children.”

Marcoplos said he believed the public had been very engaged in discussion around this budget amendment, and that there was much more attention than most items in the budget usually receive.

And to the idea that the county was already doing enough to counter climate change? Well, it’s like if a drought was coming to your farm, Marcoplos said.

“My response would not be, ‘Well I planted two tomato plants, it’s going to be fine.’ No. I’m going to plant a bunch of tomato plants and a lot of other stuff too, right? I mean we just need to do more.”

Commissioners Mark Dorsin, Sally Greene, Marcoplos and Rich voted in support of a motion to add the tax hike to the budget, with an added commitment to quickly form a committee to decide where the funds would be spent. Commissioners Jamezetta Bedford, McKee and Price voted against that motion.

Elsewhere on the budget, an amendment to decrease the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools special district tax failed 6 to 1 and a revised amendment raising the base pay of county commissioners passed 5 to 2.

County commissioners will now vote on this completed budget on June 18.

A complete list of budget amendments, and their status, can be found on the county website.