After weeks of debate, Guilford County commissioners appeared ready to finalize next year’s budget. But just days before the scheduled vote last week, they hit pause, saying in a press release staff needed more time to work on the spending plan in light of the impacts of Senate Bill 889.
For this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD’s April Laissle explores what’s in the newly passed legislation and why it’s forcing counties like Guilford back to the drawing board.
Over the past few years, property values in North Carolina have skyrocketed, leading to much higher tax bills for homeowners. State lawmakers created Senate Bill 889 as a way to ease that burden. It prevents certain municipalities from taking new property values into account when setting tax rates.
Hunter Bacot, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, says the legislation passed at a particularly bad time for local governments — just weeks before they are required to have budgets finalized.
“The state is now stepping in, basically making them recalibrate after they've gone through all this work," he says. "So they're going to have to go back and revisit their situation based on last year's tax base.”
Bacot says in effect, the measure means counties will have less overall revenue to pay for increasingly costly services.
Skip Alston, the chair of Guilford County’s board of commissioners, says they will be forced to make major cuts.
“It's all about the long lines in our social services department. It's all about whether or not we can get the response time that you need in order to protect your family," he says. "It's about whether or not we're going to be able to provide the funds to the schools that your kids are going to.”
Alston says the county will be unable to fulfill the school district’s budget request, which was set to support school security, staffing and technology.
It’s all happening as Guilford County braces for growth tied to JetZero and Boom Supersonic.
“if we know that we got 25,000 new residents, jobs that are going to be coming to Guilford County over the next three to four years, we can't wait until they get here," he said. "We have to make sure that we get them the services to be able to provide the services on day one.”
Alston says, for now, the county is focused on the immediate task at hand. Under state law, commissioners must adopt a budget by July 1.