Expanding Wake Tech, county parks before local voters

In addition to choosing local and state officials in the November election, Wake County voters also will decide whether the county can issue $349 million in bonds to expand Wake Technical Community College and another $120 million in bonds for more parks and greenways.

If the Wake Tech bonds are approved, paying them off would add $23 to the annual tax bill of a $200,000 house, but supporters say the growth of the community college will more than pay that back.

Wake Tech is one of only five community colleges in North Carolina with a growing enrollment, but the facilities aren't growing fast enough to keep up with demand as the county continues to add people and job openings.

Just two months ago, Wake Tech officials cut the ribbon on a new IT campus in Research Triangle Park, and it's already at capacity with 1,000 students.

"Wake Tech serves one in 10 people in Wake County – adults," said Tom Looney, who chairs the college's Board of Trustees. "We've got over 74,000 students. So we have a significant impact on both economic development, economic mobility for our students, providing innovation that is required in really all jobs today."

Looney said bond funding will help pay for more seats and better technology in classrooms. Wake Tech plans to add new programs in health care technology, including sonography, and to expand programs for mechanics, auto body repair, advanced manufacturing and public safety.

Expanding those programs will help Wake County employers as well as workers, he added, noting that there are more openings right now in Wake County than there are trained workers to fill them.

If voters reject the bonds, Wake Tech officials said none of their planned projects can be done, unless the school comes up with another way to fund them.

More than a third of the money in the $120 million parks bond would go toward buying land to preserve as open space and to expand the area's network of greenways. Another $39 million would pay for renovations at existing parks, while $34 million would go to developing new parks and nature preserves.

As with the Wake Tech bonds, officials said that none of the projects will move forward if the parks bonds are voted down unless the county can find another way to fund them.