A unanimous vote Thursday approved the $22 million budget with a revenue-neutral tax rate of 36.65 cents per $100 of valuation. The decision came after weeks of resident outcry.

The new budget’s numbers are far cry — a $2 million far cry — from the $24 million proposed budget presented earlier this month. The proposed budget had a tax rate of 43.96 cents per $100 and was 19 percent over revenue-neutral.

Angry opposition met the first proposal, with residents claiming the 19 percent over revenue-neutral rate was especially damaging in a slowing economy.

“It’s like organized crime,” Morrisville citizen William Green said before a June 24 budget discussion. Green felt the original budget proposal would hit citizens on fixed incomes hard.

At that June 24 meeting commissioners voted to deny the original budget proposal and directed Town Manager John Whitson to reduce the budget and make it revenue neutral.

Revenue neutral describes a tax rate that is lowered to compensate for a revaluation in which property values are increased, keeping the actual money raised by taxes the same as before the revaluation. Wake County’s latest property tax revaluation, the first since 2000, became effective Jan. 1.

To get the budget revenue neutral commissioners cut components from the budget ranging from community events to new department vehicles, said Morrisville Mayor Jan Faulkner.

One of the biggest cuts was made to the cost-of-living increases given to staff.

As originally proposed, the budget had given all staff a 4.44 percent increase in salary. The adopted budget had that number slashed to a 3 percent increase, Faulkner said.

Officials also reduced the originally proposed $10 vehicle license fee to $5, Faulkner said.

Whitson had warned commissioners that creating a revenue-neutral budget could mean personnel cuts, but none were made in the adopted budget.

“I did not want to see us going into cutting personnel,” Faulkner said.

Morrisville resident Jane Rockwell said she was glad the town had not cut personnel or services from the the fire and police departments, which she felt were essential to the town’s operation.

She would like to future budget adoptions to happen without such a time crunch though.

“It came down too close to the wire,” Rockwell said.

According to state law the new budget has to be in place by July 1.

“I think we’ve all learned a lot from this process,” Faulkner said, noting that she would like to start the budget process earlier next year and get more public input.

Commissioner Tom Murry said that he didn’t see a need to start the budget process — which began with staff meetings in February — any earlier.

Murry did feel that residents should be allowed more input on all the decisions that affect the budget process, such as the town’s adoption of a long range financial plan in April.

“The tax rate was essentially set in April,” Murry said.

He would also like to see the town work with civic groups to seek out corporate dollars for help in future capital projects, so that Morrisville can stay ambitious but realistic in budgets to come.