LANDIS — The Board of Aldermen has adopted a 2018-19 budget that some residents say will make it too expensive to live in Landis.

“I think it’s sad that you’re going to out-price people who live here,” said Meredith Bare of Hoke Street during a public hearing before the final vote Monday.

She was one of 11 people who addressed aldermen, all objecting to the increases.

The board voted 3-1 for a budget that raises the property tax rate by 5 cents per $100 valuation, increasing the tax on a $150,000 home from $720 to $795.

The total budget, including all funds, is $12.96 million. It also increases water and sewer rates and establishes a new $30-a-year fee for registered vehicles.

According to town officials, the increases will enable the board to start a road improvement project, give employees their first cost-of-living raises since 2007-08, make water and sewer improvements, add employees in parks and public works, and buy $100,000 worth of new Christmas lights.

“It’s a very aggressive budget,” Town Manager Reed Linn told the board. “You’ve tackled a lot.”

Residents questioned setting the vehicle tax at the maximum allowed under state law, while Salisbury and Kannapolis charge less. Linn said the board is trying to raise as much money as possible to improve street conditions.

Between tax revenue and Powell Bill funds, the board plans to spend $300,000 on street work in the year ahead — part of several million dollars’ worth of road work needed over the next decade or more, Mayor Mike Mahaley said.

“During the election, that’s all we heard, was how bad the roads were,” the mayor said.

A contractor who surveyed the town’s streets in 2014 estimated Landis needed $4.5 million in road work, Mahaley said.

Targeted for improvement this year most likely will be Fifth Street, Davis Street and two shorter streets — just a beginning, he said.

But residents continued to question the increases and predict dire consequences.

The Rev. Adam Love of Zion Street, a Landis resident for three years, said working families are leaving town to find jobs elsewhere, and some are settling in China Grove or Kannapolis because they are more affordable. If Landis’ spending trend continues, he said, no one will be left and “tumbleweeds will be rolling through the streets.”

Nadine Cherry said she was disappointed with a 5-cent tax increase all at once, instead of raising the tax gradually. She also said that while everyone would have to pay the vehicle tax, not everyone would benefit from the road work.

David Roberts said there is a tendency at all levels to grow the size and influence of government over residents, but there is a limit to the amount of taxation — “and thus slavery” — that can take place before government begins to collapse.

Roberts presented aldermen with a list of questions, from how streets will be chosen for improvements to whether Lake Wilderness will be self-supporting.

Hope Oliphant, who works at Main Street Mission in China Grove, said she comes face-to-face with people who cannot afford to pay their power bills and water-sewer bills. She appreciates Lake Corriher Wilderness Park, she said, but the town may one day have people staying in cabins there after paying power bills instead of rent and getting kicked out of their houses.

David McCarty of Tranquil Lake Drive criticized the growing city budget and taxes. “Where’s it stop?” he asked. “… You gotta look into yourself and say, do these people deserve these increases?”

Like others, McCarty asked the board to go back to the drawing board and find a way to avoid raising taxes and rates so much at once.

After the hearing closed, Mahaley and aldermen defended the budget, saying the board inherited debts and problems that had been accumulating for years.

Alderman Seth Moore cast the lone no vote, saying the budget needed more work. The roads are in bad shape, he said, but the town needs to pace itself. As for other needs, he said, “it’s just all smoke and mirrors.”

Alderman Tommy Garver said few people attended the board’s budget work sessions where the increases were debated. He also said this was the first time Moore had voiced concerns about the budget, on a night when he had an audience to please.

Moore said he’d seen no point in speaking up earlier because he could see a majority of aldermen had made up their minds to go with the increases.