When Guilford County Manager Mike Halford gave the Guilford County Board of Commissioners his initial thoughts on the fiscal 2024-2025 county budget at a Thursday, April 18 work session, he began with a pretty astounding statement.
“I’ll cut to the chase – there is not enough money to do everything everyone wants to do,” he said.
The reason that statement is somewhat astounding is that, in recent budgets – between federal relief millions, $92 million a year extra due to the 2022 revaluation of property, pulling money out of the county’s savings account, pretty good sales tax numbers and other factors – Halford and the board have for the most part been swimming in money.
And they’ve spent it on all sorts of things like higher employee pay, funding Guilford County Schools generously, nearly tripling the size of the Women- and Minority- Business Enterprise Department, expanding the county’s Public Relations Department – you name it.
However, at the April 18 budget work session in the Carolyn Coleman Conference Room in the Old Guilford County Court House, Halford said some plans and programs were going to have to be cut or delayed in order to arrive at a balanced budget for fiscal 2024-2025, which is currently estimated to come in north of $830 million dollars.
“We’ll need to move the chess pieces around the chess board to bring a balanced budget back to the board,” Halford said, adding that he wanted to hear feedback regarding what should stay and what should go.
Halford always wants definitive budget guidance at this time of year, but he rarely gets it from the board.
Last year at this time, Halford tried to gamify discerning the commissioners’ priorities by bringing green, yellow and red dot stickers and having the commissioners put them on a whiteboard next to various county goals and priorities. At that April 2023 work session, the commissioners said they didn’t feel like playing the game, and Halford ended up getting very little guidance.
This week, the manager threw out a lot of suggestions in an attempt to get the board’s views.
“I want to get back from you, ‘That’s a good idea,’ or, ‘You missed it completely,’ he said.
The one piece of solid information the board gave him, by unanimous consent, is that they want Halford to bring a budget to them that includes no property tax increase.
Halford said the two most important areas for which he wanted to hear the board’s wishes were employee compensation matters and how much money should go to fund Guilford County Schools’ operating budget.
He said some ways the county could save money are by putting off buying new replacement vehicles that have been planned, delaying some desired building maintenance projects and limiting the purchase of new equipment and planned technology upgrades.
“I need guidance from the board,” he said, adding not much later, “Any other feedback for me?”
As usual, little came.
He said there will be additional chances for him to hear feedback from the board since there will be more work sessions before Halford brings his recommended budget to the board in mid-May.
you”ve to be kidding me!!
They are indeed swimming in money – and still they plead poverty.
That is because there is no limit to the rapacity of the Parasitic Sector.
This despite a record increase in property taxes.
Perhaps this provides an opportunity for citizens to help out the hesitant Commissioners by sending them or Halford programs or projects they support, as well as programs or projects they consider unworthy of funding. As to both types of recommendations citizens could also suggest changes in the operation or funding of the programs, measures or procedures to determine the efficacy or efficiency of the programs, and possibly, proposals to make existing or proposed programs self-funding. Since the days of free money appear to be over, perhaps it is time to restrict, if not terminate the endless largesse of local officials, and return to fiscal prudence.
Taxpayer money is like heroin. You can easily get hooked on it (so I’m told)
This Council is addicted. And yes, you voted for them
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I always laughed at “The War On Drugs”. The biggest drug addict in our society is government, and its drug of choice is our money.
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Money may be tight but we keep doing stupid things.
How much more will it cost the county for the Jail destruction and rebuild because they canceled the contract with reputable builder
Sammet. The job would have been completed by now for millions less.
MWH. . .you have to understand how these things work. . . .politics and East GBO are running things, not the people who live normal lives and expect government to be stingy with our money.
And that contract cancellation was for a frivolous reason.
Money will be tight this year??? Can’t wait to see how much skip raises property taxes next year.
More Democratic BS whinning for more tax dollars to whiz into the wind. Quit wasting tax dollars on your pet projects and international museums. Stop giving surplus tax dollars to a given high school. Stop the bloat of DEI hires. You have more funds than you’ve ever had. Quit pissing it away at the taxpayers expense. If you plan on voting, be sure you understand who and what you are voting for, or kiss your hard earned money good bye.
Unbelievable. After the last property value reevaluation. Emperor Skip refused to reduce the rates to maintain consistent income. As pointed out in your article, with all the “free” money they’ve been getting, they have been spending like drunken sailors. Maybe it would’ve been reasonable to set up a “rainy day“ fund. But no!! Perhaps we should look at spending less money! Just a thought!
This is called the BIG LIE. Tell it repeatedly in one way or another, and more people will actually believe.
A 30% increase in taxes and now you’re pleading poverty? Cut me a hus !
Stop the profligate spending and learn to live within your means.
There is nothing like a cold slap of reality !! I guess that means they will be all hands on deck to accelerate that early property revaluation, and buckle up.
Can’t you save space without the obilgatory reference to the “Carolyn Coleman Conference Room”?
“. . . .how much money should go to fund Guilford County Schools’ operating budget”
Are you kidding me? The school system is a bloated system. When was the last time they did a deep dive into areas they could save money? That’s a question they don’t want to talk about since it goes against their ingrained belief they are underpaid, undestaffed, etc. Having worked in government in the past, I can tell you the employees who press for reductions in costs are the ones who find themselves getting their job reassigned to the basement, or even eliminated due to “cost savings.” If you don’t believe this, you haven’t delved deeper into politics.
There will never be enough money for these people. They waste money like they can just print it themselves and then they call them pleading for more money. This is just the plot to justify asking for more taxpayer money. I would still like to know how the North Carolina educational lottery gives the money to the school system and they never have enough they might want to cut back on sponsoring so much minority businesses.
Maybe the Rhino should go back to posting Guilford County salaries