The Guilford County Commissioners are in full-blown budget mode right now and, as part of that process, they’ve been horse trading among themselves, listening to county residents in town halls and regular meetings and trying to balance the revenue needs of a growing county versus what taxpayers will bear.
In addition to any new money they get from the 2026 countywide revaluation of property – which would add an extra $175 million in new revenue if the current tax rate stayed the same – the county is looking for other revenue sources to support future government growth.
For instance, county leaders are hoping that county voters will approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase in November which could bring in north of $25 million in extra revenue per year. County leaders have never been able to convince voters to approve the move, even though they started the effort almost two decades ago.
Recent discussions among county staff and commissioners have also clarified that the county may, in the future, rely on so-called “two-thirds bonds” to finance some coming capital projects. Those are bonds that can be issued without voter approval under certain conditions.
That approach would allow Guilford County to move forward more quickly on some projects, but it would also add even more new debt on top of the more than $2 billion in school bond debt already approved by voters – which, by the way, comes to well over $3 billion in total payback when interest is included.
County officials have emphasized that the school bond program won’t be reduced to pay for county facilities, meaning the two tracks of spending – school bond revenue and two-thirds bond money – would continue simultaneously.
That raises the broader question that’s begun to surface more often in recent discussions: How much debt is too much?
So far, there hasn’t been a definitive answer.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston told the Rhino Times this week that tens of thousands of new residents are moving into Guilford County because of economic development successes like the Toyota battery factory near Liberty, the JetZero win that’s bringing in more than 15,000 new jobs, and other companies coming in – largely at the airport megasite.
“We’ve got to start preparing now,” Alston said, “for all these people that are coming in three, four, five years from now. They are all going to need schools, emergency services, law enforcement protection and other services. We can’t get caught flat-footed. We have to start preparing now.”
He said that also means the county must get more housing – and fast.
“We don’t want them living in neighboring counties and coming into Greensboro just to work,” the chairman said. “We want them paying property taxes in Guilford County, not Rockingham County or Alamance County.”
Alston also pointed out that the commissioners have been getting a lot of blowback from taxpayers who assume the board will keep the tax rate the same and collect all the new revenue generated by higher property values.
In 2022, after the last revaluation significantly raised housing prices, this Democratic-led board – with many of the same members – did keep the rate the same and spent roughly $95 million in additional annual revenue generated by those higher valuations.
“We don’t need all $175 million,” Alston said. “But we do need some of it. So the tax rate won’t stay the same – but it won’t drop to revenue neutral.”
When told that one Rhino Times commenter suggested in a post that the board would end up collecting $174.999999 million rather than the full $175 million, Alston laughed, and he joked, “That might not be a bad guess.”
However, the commissioners also have to take into account the large number of irate taxpayers they’re hearing from.
No major votes have been taken. No tax rate has been set.
But based on past behavior and large spending by the current board, taxpayers are very worried.
At this point, almost everything is on the table.
That will start to change once the manager’s budget is released in mid-May. At that point, commissioners will have a concrete proposal to react to, and the public will get its first real look at how the numbers are coming together.
From there, the process will move quickly.
The board will hold its legally required public hearing on the proposed manager’s budget – giving residents a final chance to weigh in before decisions are made.
After that, commissioners will work through any adjustments, add their last-minute “pet projects” – funding for nonprofits they like, and then adopt a final budget, usually in mid-June.
Last year, the board didn’t even name the nonprofits in the adopted budget. Instead, commissioners set aside a couple of million dollars for that purpose and then, in late summer, decided which groups would receive funding. One reason may have been to call less attention to the generally unpopular move, but there was still plenty of outrage later that summer over what many saw as a seemingly random list of groups that got taxpayer money as opposed to those that did not.
Once the new fiscal 2026–2027 budget is approved, that document will govern county spending from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.
Right now, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is in the familiar early stretches of the process – holding town halls, listening to public comment and waiting for the staff numbers that will ultimately drive everything else.
Commissioners are talking – and listening – but not yet deciding.
And the biggest unanswered question hanging over all of it is how much property taxes will actually go up after the county’s 2026 revaluation.
Under North Carolina law, if no action is taken, counties by default adopt a “revenue neutral” tax rate after a revaluation – a rate that would bring in roughly the same amount of revenue as the prior year, adjusted for new growth.
However, that’s just a starting point: Commissioners are free to set the tax rate higher or lower.
In the meantime, commissioners have been fanning out across the county holding budget town halls throughout April, gathering input from residents. The message at those meetings has been consistent and predictable: People want more services – but they don’t want higher taxes.
Many speakers have urged the county to increase funding for education, public safety and other core services – especially as Guilford County continues to grow.
That growth is a key factor shaping the conversation. County officials have been highlighting projections of roughly 27,000 new jobs over the next three to five years – driven by economic development across the region.
And how much to give Guilford County Schools – which typically accounts for about 45 percent of the county’s entire budget – is always a major point of debate.
Guilford County Schools has submitted a proposed budget of about $961 million, including a request for roughly $24.6 million in brand new county funding on top of what they got last year.
That request is now sitting squarely in the commissioners’ laps, and it’s expected to be one of the biggest drivers of whatever tax increase is ultimately adopted.
Historically, school funding debates have dominated Guilford County budget discussions, and this year will be no different.
At the same time, commissioners are wrestling with a separate but related issue: a desire to move forward with long-term capital projects and renovations.
Guilford County has been discussing a capital plan totaling roughly $572 million, including a proposed downtown Greensboro government complex estimated at about $137 million. That project isn’t part of this year’s budget, but commissioners know it may not be far off.
So far, none of those projects have been formally approved, but the conversation is becoming more concrete, and the Board of Commissioners is clearly moving in that direction, with staff gleefully leading the way.
All of it feeds into the same central issue: how to pay for growth, how much to tax, and how much debt the county is willing to take on to get there.
For now, the answers remain unclear.
However, in a matter of weeks, the numbers will start to solidify, the proposals will be on the table, and the decisions will begin.
And when they do, taxpayers across Guilford County will be watching very closely.
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So when tens of thousands of new jobs and businesses are added to the tax base of Guilford County… that’s a reason to INCREASE taxes? Er, no ….when your tax base is added to so massively, that makes it an opportunity to REDUCE the tax burden on each citizen or tax parcel, and still reap much greater revenue.
But we shouldn’t be surprised by this legerdemain by Democrats. They represent the interests and appetites of government and the Parasitic Sector. And there is limit to the rapacious greed of people who can simply force other people to surrender the money they have earned.
Government is greed.
Exactly. Just say no! Furthermore, trim unnecessary services & oversight, eliminate property taxes altogether & implement a fair sales tax. No one is exempt. The more one consumes, the more one pays. Those of us who choose to be a bit more frugal without going to the extreme would therefore pay far less than today.
ditto
& here lie evidence: ask guvmnt employee ‘how many relatives/acquaintances do u have who also work/d 4 guvmnt’ ? add ‘contractors’ add ‘defense’ industrialists it took 4 attempts to spell ‘acquaintances’ correctly & just for you ! if the ‘spell check’ knows it’s wrong why doesn’t it fix it ? gets this fixed austin chop chop
First off, I’m glad Skip the Omnipotent found my prediction of the his raping the citizens of his Domain of Guilford County to the tune of $174,999,999.00 so amusing. And I’m sure HIS Board of Commissars (Democrat and Republican alike) will laugh with him as they vote to create “…a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
“The board will hold its legally required public hearing on the proposed manager’s budget – giving residents a final chance to weigh in before decisions are made.” TRANSLATION: We the County Commissars have to listen to you peasants whine but don’t expect us to ACTUALLY represent you. We have our orders from our Leader (All Hail Skip the Omnipotent, Long May He Rein).
“Last year, the board didn’t even name the nonprofits in the adopted budget. Instead, commissioners set aside a couple of million dollars for that purpose and then, in late summer, decided which groups would receive funding.” TRANSLATION: We Commissars will wait and see who does our bidding best THEN reward them accordingly.
“At the same time, commissioners are wrestling with a separate but related issue: a desire to move forward with long-term capital projects and renovations.” This comment is directed to you Scott…what the Commissars are “wrestling” with how they can do the Skip Alston Shuffle while doing ALL of them. But you are right on with your comment of “…with staff gleefully leading the way.”
“However, in a matter of weeks, the numbers will start to solidify, the proposals will be on the table, and the decisions will begin.”
And when they do, taxpayers across Guilford County will be will also be bent OVER the table, pants around their ankles and a large container of sandy Vaseline handy for the Skip’s Board of Commissars to make liberal use of.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
With words like these, with attitudes like these these it’s little wonder they don’t want this taught in our schools. But by God we can teach LGBTQRSTUV and there are 237 different sexes in our society…at least for as long as it has to survive.
CARPE DIEM people.
skip and the other minorities on the board may think they are safe but i promise you black people value money just as much as us white people and they will remember come time for reelection
I think they represent the Democrat party too well for that. I do not think they trust anything but other Democrats. Look what Guilford County has come to Horrible: Schools, Sheriff Departmet, and the Commissioners. Yet they will vote it in, not Caring that Skip gives his people and friends all this nonprofit money. The republicans and unaffiliated should get their lazy selves to the ballot box, and stop this.
Conservatives are so easily distracted by $2 million spent on non-profits (0.2% of the budget) while the state strips funding for schools, public health, and infrastructure while putting more pressure on local governments to tax and spend to cover the gaps.
So Skip “laughs” at the tax situation numerous citizens are concerned about. County citizens better think before they continue to vote and they better show up to vote no more waste and taxes for pet projects. It’s obvious these commissioners have the cart in front of the horse. How about showing us how many tens of thousands of new residents have moved here. Stop the funding of non profits. Let the citizens decide what they want to donate if anything to a given non profit. As for the school system, it’s just pissing into the wind. The fools that voted the $ 2 plus billion school bond are screwed for the next few decades.
In this article you speak of taxes and debt as 2 separate things and they are not. The only way Guilford County can pay off the debt is by raising taxes. The 2 tax revenue streams are sales taxes and property taxes with some other very small tax revenue coming from what they charge for services and so forth. Big debt equals big tax increases and because the citizens can vote no on a sales tax and don’t get to vote on a property tax increase then we all know what pocket this revenue is coming out of. The bottom line is we need to be able to vote yes or no on both property taxes and sales taxes.
You are forgetting Skip the Omnipotence’s secret weapon…the “temporary voter group” aka all the college students that the local (National Socialist) Democrat Party works so hard to register and direct on how to vote.
Just sayin’.
The tinfoil hat on your head is certainly too tight with your conspiracy theory that Skip uses college students given that Skip won 100% of the vote in the last election as conservatives didn’t even bother to put anyone up against him. What a loon.
ole skippy and the democrat controlled county board and school are salivating at the prospect of more money to fund a big new and unneeded $572 Million downtown county complex and yet another $550 Million for schools. Let’s see, JUST THESE TWO PROJECTS WILL COST $1.122 BILLION DOLLARS PLUS ABOUT $700 MILLION IN INTEREST FOR A TOTAL COST OF $1,822 BILLION DOLLARS. But DON’T FORGET THE AVERAGE YEARLY COST OF ABOUT $165 MILLION TO PAY BACK THE $3.4 BILLION FOR THE SCHOOLS. So in total, Guilford taxpayers will be paying an average of over $200 MILLION A YEAR FOR THE NEXT 30 TO 40 YEARS TO PAY BACK ALL THE MONEY old skippy and his liberal, free spending democrats want to spend that YOU will have to pay back.
Don’t forget that since ole skippy and the liberal democrats took control of Guilford County and the schools, they have INCREASED GOVERNMENT SPENDING BY $200 MILLION IN THE PAST 3 YEARS. THEN they got serious about spending, kept all of the increased tax revenue from the last reappraisal, hired a BUNCH of new county employees to further bloat the county budget and illegally worked with the school board to put every taxpayer in Guilford in debt for the next 30 to 40 years with the school bonds.
Wait there is more. ole skippy and his liberal comrades want to PERMANENTLY RAISE SALES TAXES. This is a punitive tax AGAINST retirees who live on a fixed income, disabled vets and low to moderate income families. Ole skippy simply does not care. An INCREASE IN THE SALES TAX will bring in about $20 to $30 MILLION the first year and will increase every year after that. But voters once again, can SAY NO! You would think that after 5, 6, 7 or is it 8 times trying to RAISE SALES TAXES-AND BEING REJECTED EVERY TIME-ole skippy and his merry band of tax and spend liberal democrats would get the message. What is the saying about how to get the attention of a stubborn mule (the democrat symbol). Oh yea. Something about smacking the mule in the head with a 2 x 4 to get their attention. I am NOT suggesting we smack ole skippy or any of his disciples in the head with a 2 x 4. Violence is not the way to get their attention. Instead, let’s just VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE and REPLACE THEM WITH CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS. Republicans are not perfect, nobody is. But at least they RESPECT YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AND FIND WAYS TO GET 7 CENTS OF VALUE OUT OF EVERY NICKEL OF YOUR MONEY. dems don’t have a clue. All they know is spend, tax, spend, tax…..
Remember our history. When England applied unfair and burdensome taxes, colonists threw their tea in the harbor to protest. Like the 1976 movie Network News, one actor says I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore. NOW IS THE TIME TO THROW OUT THE democrat BUMS WHO TAX AND SPEND. If not now, when? What will it take for YOU to stand up for yourself, your kids, grand kids and the generations that follow. I thought you wanted a BETTER LIFE for your family. If you don’t vote to THROW THE BUMS OUT, then YOUR FAMILY WILL PAY THE PRICE! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO LEAVE YOUR KIDS? A life where they can’t afford to buy and keep a home or to have kids? I hope your goal in life to leave you family in a better place, not a worse place. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. The state motto of one of our founding colonies is to LIVE FREE OR DIE. ITS TIME TO DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT.
In my experience, violence is the answer; invading Iraq works too.
I seem to remember that the Boom Aviation project has been delayed indefinitely. So do we need housing for employees that will not be coming to the area?
sourcing their bio-fuel looks sketchy ?. why do people need to travel vast distances @ highest speeds & energy consumption & pollution generation so often ? it’s ‘donnie darko’ they wear out their welcome quickly & are forced to relocate far away fast. this happened to an acquaintance & i can guess why.
For the life of me, I cannot equate Boom Aviation with Donnie Darko. Time travel, as far as I know, did not include energy consumption and pollution.
drop an jet engine on my house !
We do not want to give these thieves any more money. Cut the budget, across the board, and hold taxes flat. We will not vote for that sales tax. At some point, we have to remove these fools running local government and fix the problem. It’s all our money, and elections give us a say in how it’s spent. Unfortunately we’re likely outnumbered.
The council needs to learn the difference between wants and needs. We all have to do it every day. “Do we need this electric screw-driver?” “Do we need to go out for an $80 dinner?” “Do we need a new car with a seven-year loan?”
Property taxes as we know them must end. Local elected officials are too close to the process. When Alston can pay a visit to A&T University to gin up votes, when commissioners can glad-hand their neighbors for votes, when the low information voters in certain districts keep voting for skin color, and when the General Assembly in Raleigh continues to pass statutes that protect certain property owners from paying property taxes, then property taxes will always be unfair to hardworking homeowners. Think about it, taxpaying property owners are paying for schools, paying for policing and paying for government while nonpaying receive the same benefits but are NOT paying for them. A different way must be enacted to fund local county government. Don’t allow Alston and the other Commissioners to distract Guilford property taxpayers by talking about reducing the tax rate. We want the elimination of homeowner property taxes.
Alston’s comment about not wanting newcomers living in neighboring counties and coming into Greensboro just to work but wants them to pay Guilford County property taxes shows a total lack of understanding of the process. The new commers may not live in Guilford County nor pay Guilford taxes but their kids will not burden Guilford County schools, will not make use of Guilford policing, nor use Guilford County social services.
The current group of Guilford County Commissioners are subpar. Where are the strong leaders in the county and why are they not running for office? There is a leadership vacuum, and this has resulted in the creation of the mediocre Commissioners we have today.
Democrats see everything as a need. It is all about “show.”
Republicans see everything as only about themselves. It’s all about blaming the poor and disenfranchised.
NC Senator Berger announced in February that he was to Introduce a 12-month Property Tax Revaluation Moratorium “during the legislature’s “short session” in April to halt all property tax revaluation changes for 12 months to ensure the legislature can adopt needed property tax reforms. This action will pause any proposed property value adjustments prompted by a county property tax revaluation.”
Scott, what happened with this? Did Berger follow through or did he become too disgruntled with voters after losing in the primary?
I propose holding a referendum to force the county and city to strip their budgets down to the bare necessities needed for the county and city to function, and tax just for that. Then add a voluntary donation line for each NGO, special group, museum, or entertainment venue. That would allow the citizens themselves to decide who deserves what. They could hold a series of town halls or video presentations on the city and county’s YouTube channels.
I believe some of this government bloat is due to programs that were funded with federal covid money. These programs need to be cut. All those future county residents that the new jobs may bring will not make Guilford their home because of the outrageous property taxes. If you are a non-profit and receive tax payer funds, your bookkeeping records should be public records.
This is a great point.