The Hillsborough Board of Commissioners met Wednesday, May 27, at the Town Hall Annex. Following is a brief summary of noteworthy actions. It does not include all actions taken at the meeting and should not be viewed as official minutes.

The meeting is available to view on the town’s YouTube channel. See the agenda packet for more information.

Proclamations

The board approved proclamations for:

Gun Violence Awareness Day — The day encourages support of local efforts to reduce gun violence and encourages residents to wear orange on June 5 to raise awareness about gun violence and to honor the lives of those lost to it.

LGBTQ+ Pride Month — The month reflects on the rights movement for the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning, plus other sexual and gender minorities. It urges residents to recognize the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community and to promote principles of equality, liberty and justice in Hillsborough.

Budget Work Session

The board continued discussion on the town’s budget. See the news releases on the proposed budget and the budget public hearing.

Property Tax

The board continued discussion on the town’s tax rate, recommending a 2-cent increase to 53.3 cents to:

• Avoid using savings to fund the Fiscal Year 2027 budget and ensure adequate funds are available to respond to future needs and natural disasters.  
• Reduce future tax rate increases related to major projects such as the train station, Ridgewalk greenway and downtown fire station.
• Prepare for possible state-imposed property tax restrictions.

For property owners, the tax increase means $7.50 per month for those with a $450,000 home.

Fees

The board discussed fees and directed staff to increase several fees to help cover the costs associated with providing those services to the public. Fee increases include field and picnic shelter rental fees.

Nonprofit Partnerships

The board continued to discuss funding for local nonprofits and changed the following planned allocations in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget:

• Orange County Congregations in Mission — Increased to $21,000
• Orange County Arts Alliance — Reduced to $0

The Arts Alliance was awarded $10,000 from the Hillsborough Tourism Development Authority at its May meeting. 

The town board directed the Hillsborough Arts Council to the Hillsborough tourism board and tourism development authority for fund requests in excess of $15,000.  

Data Centers

The board held a public hearing before adopting a 60-day moratorium on data center development. The short-term pause allows the town time to complete the process required for a longer moratorium, during which the town intends to develop regulations for data centers.

Software Management

The board authorized the town manager to enter into an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology to use Tanium, a software that provides software update management and an overview of IT assets, including categorization and status of installed software.