Wake Technical Community College, the state's second largest community college, asked for $210.2 million for new facilities and renovations to existing facilities over four years. Of this amount, voters approved $200 million in bonds, with the remaining amount to be funded by cash in the County's capital budget.
Wake Tech is focused on meeting job market needs by providing training for businesses and students in technical programs, general education, health careers, public safety, and various business and industry programs based on feedback, applied benchmarking and regional partnerships.
Wake Tech enrollment 2011-2012 school year:
- 60,750 headcount, 18,398 FTE
- 91,167 in 2018 (50% growth project)
The bonds will be used toward Wake Tech's $210.2 million capital program, consisting of six main projects:
- Northern Wake Campus: Construction of a general education classroom building to open in July 2016
- Northern Wake Campus: Construction of a health sciences building to open in January 2017
- Northern Wake Campus: Construction of a IT- and business-focused building to open in January 2017
- Public Safety Education Center: Construction of Phase 3, to focus on police, fire, and EMS training, to open in July 2015
- RTP Campus: Construction of the first two classroom buildings, focused on IT analytics, biotechnology and general education, to open in July 2017
- Various renovations, roof repairs, elevator repairs and parking lots, college-wide
General Obligation Bonds
General obligation bonds provide the County the lowest cost of debt to the taxpayer. The County's triple-A bond rating allows the County to receive lower interest rates on debt issued for capital expenditures. Existing and future revenue will provide for the payment of debt services on the bonds, and no tax increase is required for the capital costs of Wake Tech's $210.2 million building program.