MONROE — Property taxes could increase 20 cents by 2014.

According to a report prepared by county Finance Director Kai Nelson, if the Union County Board of Commissioners wants to move ahead with every project in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the costs would raise taxes by almost 30 percent, bringing the rate to 87 cents. The current rate in Mecklenburg County is 84 cents.

That would mean an extra $400 in annual taxes on a $200,000 house and an extra $1,000 for a $500,000 house.

“I think we need to look at cutting the CIP even more,” Commissioner Lanny Openshaw said after the presentation last week. He acknowledged that some projects like schools and infrastructure were unavoidable, but pointed to the “things that we don’t have to do” as places to cut.

Finding non-essential projects, however, could prove easier said than done. Of the more than $590 million in requests, $380.6 million is for the Union County Public Schools and South Piedmont Community College, and almost $66 million is for the jail, which is over capacity. Other requests include parks and recreation, libraries and open space preservation, but are smaller line items.

Commissioner Tracy Kuehler said the Union County detention center had been “put off and put off,” and is “now coming home to roost.” A Union County Sheriff’s Office report of inmates shows that the jail is at capacity for some categories of inmates and over capacity for others.

Nelson again indicated that the schools are draining the county coffers and blamed them for putting the county in the financial straits it is in.

Commissioners maintained that schools are important.

“The reality is people move to Union County for good schools,” Openshaw said, then added tongue-in-cheek that, “If you don’t want people moving to Union County, then you don’t need good schools. ... Let’s make the quality of life so bad that nobody wants to move here, then we don’t have to worry about these problems, right? That’s ridiculous.

“It is what it is. If you are going to have a desirable place to live, eventually you are going to have to pay. But, the question is what can we push off.”

Openshaw pointed to $6.5 million in government center renovations as a possible place to start.

“Do they really need to be done this year?” he asked. The proposed renovations would take place over two years.

To cut back on school spending, Nelson proposed another redistricting plan. Looking at enrollment figures, Nelson pointed out that the schools could effectively stay between 85 percent and 95 percent capacity through 2015 if students from a densely populated area were transferred to schools that had open seats. The scenario that school board members have projects that students from the high-performing, fast-growing western schools could be shifted to lower-performing schools in central and eastern Union County. Parents have opposed recent redistricting because of its impact on both education and the resale value of homes that are shifted into less desirable school districts.

Commissioner Kim Rogers, a former school board member, argued that Nelson’s data, while correct, does not paint an accurate picture. Nelson’s figures looked only at the total countywide enrollment and did not break the county into regions. Busing a student across the entire county was an option she said she is not willing to consider.

“You can’t fill seats in Forest Hills because Weddington is overcrowded,” Kuehler said in support of Rogers.

Commissioners broke for Thanksgiving uncertain where capital-project cuts would be made, but agreed that something needs to be done.

“I’m interested in what the schools have to say (in response),” Kuehler said.