For years, Guilford County’s Republican-controlled Board of Commissioners kept the county’s savings account well above the county’s own financial safety policy without raising the countywide property tax rate.
Then Democrats took control of the board in December of 2020.
Since then, Guilford County’s budgets have grown dramatically, county commissioners have approved two major property tax increases – and the county’s most flexible savings account has fallen below the minimum level set out in the Guilford County’s own financial policy.
The county didn’t just spend down its savings. It spent down its savings while the budget kept growing, pushing the reserve from comfortably above the county’s 8 percent floor to below it, where it now sits.
Guilford County’s Budget & Financial Policies & Guidelines section states: “Unassigned fund balance of the General Fund at fiscal year-end shall not fall below 8 percent of the subsequent year’s adopted budget.”
The county manager’s 2026-2027 recommended budget also noted that the county has “historically sought to maintain 8 percent of unassigned fund balance based on the subsequent year budget.”
But the county’s own budget book shows that Guilford County has now fallen below that level.
Here’s the recent trend, using the county’s own numbers:
Fiscal Year End — Unassigned General Fund Balance — Unassigned As Percent Of Subsequent Budget
2021-2022 — $96,232,936 — 12 percent
2022-2023 — $102,103,823 — 12 percent
2023-2024 — $70,589,618 — 8 percent
2024-2025 — $58,185,646 — 7 percent
That means the county’s unassigned reserve fell by roughly $44 million in two years.
The decline is even more striking because the county budget kept growing during that same period. A $58 million reserve may sound like a lot of money, but in a county budget approaching $900 million, it no longer meets the county’s own minimum policy.
The fiscal 2020-2021 budget – the budget year that ended with the county’s reserve near $97 million – was adopted by the Republican-controlled board before Democrats took control in December of 2020.
The first budget adopted by the Democratic-controlled board was the fiscal 2021-2022 budget. Guilford County government’s savings remained strong for the next couple of years and reached roughly $102 million in fiscal 2023. That was after the Democrats allowed the largest tax increase in county history due to the 2022 revaluation.
Then the decline began.
By fiscal 2024, unassigned fund balance had fallen to about $70.6 million. By fiscal 2025, it had fallen again to about $58.2 million.
At the same time, the county’s overall General Fund budget was growing.
After the 2022 countywide revaluation, commissioners declined to lower the property tax rate to the revenue-neutral rate. At the time, the revenue-neutral rate was about 59.54 cents, but commissioners kept the rate at 73.05 cents.
That decision generated about $92 million a year in additional recurring property tax revenue.
Despite that new massive recurring money stream, the county’s most flexible savings account kept shrinking.
This year, commissioners adopted another tax increase.
After state legislation forced Guilford County to use old property values rather than the new 2026 revaluation values, the county commissioners adopted a fiscal 2026-2027 countywide tax rate of 78.95 cents per $100 of assessed value – a 5.9-cent increase from the previous rate of 73.05 cents.
County budget documents show that the increase is expected to generate about $44.28 million in additional revenue annually.
The final adopted General Fund budget is $889.2 million.
The actual reserve percentage for the newly adopted fiscal 2026-2027 budget won’t be known until the fiscal 2026 audit is completed. However, if the most recent audited unassigned reserve of $58.2 million is measured against the new $889.2 million General Fund budget, it would equal about 6.5 percent.
That’s not an official audited figure. It’s simply a way to show the size of the problem: As the budget grows, the county needs more money in savings just to stay at the same percentage.
Eight percent of the new $889.2 million General Fund budget would be about $71.1 million. Using the most recent audited reserve figure, the county would be roughly $13 million short of the level called for by its own policy.
The adopted budget also appropriates $20.6 million from fund balance.
The county entered this budget cycle already below the reserve level described in its own financial policies.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has said repeatedly that the county needs more money because of growth, schools, debt service, county facilities and infrastructure demands.
Alston said Guilford County has to begin planning for tens of thousands of new jobs and new people expected to arrive in the area.
“I just want to make sure that we try to get us started on this infrastructure,” Alston said during the budget discussions. “We have to be able to start the process of planning for these 25,000 jobs.”
After the budget was adopted, Alston said the county commissioners worked to keep the tax increase below 6 cents.
“We’d always said we didn’t want to put any more on the taxpayers than we had to,” Alston said. “We tightened our belt and the school system will have to tighten their belt. Just because you can raise taxes doesn’t mean you should raise taxes.”
But property owners will pay a higher countywide rate again this year.
County officials argue that the pressures are school debt, rapid growth, employee pay, public safety, inflation and the cost of maintaining county services.
Critics will likely argue that the answer is simpler: The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has been spending too much.
Either way, the numbers are hard to ignore.
Republicans left office five years ago with the county’s reserve comfortably above the county’s 8 percent policy and without ever having raised the countywide property tax rate in their eight years in control. In fact, they lowered taxes slightly.
During the Democratic board’s tenure, commissioners approved the effective tax increase following the 2022 revaluation, adopted another countywide tax increase in 2026 all while spending down the county’s unassigned reserve – it’s savings – and seeing it fall below the county’s own financial policy.
The Democratic heavy board didn’t just spend down its savings – it spent down its savings while the budget kept growing, pushing the reserve from well above the county’s 8 percent floor to below it.
Now, after approving two major property tax increases in four years, Guilford County leaders are trying to find some way to rebuild the very reserve its own financial policy says should never have fallen below 8 percent
fyi – burbrella learning academy property by julian/whitsett was foreclosed on in yesterday’s N&R. check out the actual printed notice – strange – then internet the burlington papers reporting of this organization/ woman owner & the $$ she RECEIVED from guvmnt coffers. my baby does the hanky panky too
You answered your question in the first paragraph. Democrats took charge.
Democrats. Need say no more. Elect NO Democrats at ANY level of government. Republicans aren’t much better, but they ARE better.
I found this newspaper about a year ago. I wish I would have known about it sooner! It is a great source of local information and I have learned a great deal from this publication and I am so grateful to Mr. Yost for bringing forth vital information regarding Guilford County’s inter workings! Without his honest assessment and journalism I would never had known about Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the county budget, their hide and seek non-profits and other mysterious workings. I previously posted the site to the NC State Auditor’s Tipline and I stated I already submitted a form into the state to request an audit of Guilford County books. No only the books, but also to look into the percentage of funding of African American” non-profits vs “non” race funding, for which the county is providing. Not only has this board mismanaged the money they are taking in, they are also not upholding federal laws by discriminating against other demographic groups with their unequal proportions of funding to their particular group of non-profits. The time has passed for race not to be considered when your spending the public’s money. Unfortunately, this board missed that message and they continue to be color blind. We had no say on what non-profit organization receives our money from Guilford County and my husband and I do not want to continue to fund non-profits which doesn’t align with helping ALL races! Just because a majority of the board are African American does NOT permit them to favor one demographic group from another. This is called “racism!” Pure and simple! This has to stop! None of us have a money tree growing in our back yard and I know how hard people work just to make ends meet. And here we have a board that cannot manage ALL the millions of dollars they have coming into their bank account and in addition, we have a short fall of savings, thanks to this current democratic majority board. And you can bet your bottom dollar, next year your property taxes will go up even higher than what was originally anticipated for 2026! Thankfully the Republicans in the NC congress put a stop to what Guilford County wanted to do! However, this current board is going to make up the shortfall somehow and where do you think they are going to get it from? You and me by raising our property taxes AGAIN in 2027! As I stated in my previous post a few days ago, we only have one voice, let yours be heard! Contact your representatives and let them know exactly what is going on in Guilford County. The more voices they hear, the better the outcome! All of you who come to this site and post comments, put your words into action and let them be heard to the people who may actually be able to do something about it! Aside from voting, there are only so few options available to have others look at the “real truth” of what is going on in Guilford County. I implore you to have your voices heard! Enough is enough! We work way too hard to have incompetent individuals mismanage our money and supporting their “favorite” non-profit groups! Again the tip line website is: https://www.auditor.nc.gov/tipline
Lorie, thank you very much for the kind words. I really appreciate it. (I should note that the Board of Commissioners is a white majority board but Skip Alston is so powerful it is understandable why someone might think otherwise. Best wishes, Scott
Especially when the chairman of the board of commissioners sits on the board of the majority of those black nonprofits. I guess he has to find a way to fund his extravagant lifestyle. Those custom-made suits and that fancy mini mansion and all that good stuff. It’s absolutely not fair that taxpayers have no say so in where their money goes when it concerns these nonprofits. Rumor has it that some of them are not operational or do not do what they claim to do. Go figure! Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I have no doubt that a lot of them are just an empty office with a phone that someone calls and checks on a few times a day to make it look legitimate. There is something fishy going on in the relationship between comrade Skippy and these non-profits that he demands to get the majority of the money. And of course all of those so-called nonprofits are his babies. Yeah, I will be contacting that tip line as well. We need an accounting of where County money is going.
I encourage everyone to go to this site and state your concerns . The issues will draw more attention and will be handled properly the more the people complain. We definitely need changes with this board. PLEASE everyone uses sight and make your voices heard this is our only chance. This will help more than voting since Skip runs unopposed in the position he’s had for over 30 years. He seems to have open power to do whatever he wants with no accountability.
“After the budget was adopted, Alston said the county commissioners worked to keep the tax increase below 6 cents.” Whew–I’m sooo grateful they ‘worked’ to keep it below 6 cents–at 5.99, they were really looking out for the taxpayer. And perhaps I’m just naive, but wouldn’t those tens of thousands of new jobs generate more revenue for the county? Skip and his boys doubtless are already ‘chomping at the bit’ anticipating more $$$ to buy them votes.
“After the budget was adopted, Alston said the county commissioners worked to keep the tax increase below 6 cents.” Whew! What a relief! At 5.99 cents, their ‘hard’ work paid off.
And perhaps I’m naive, but wouldn’t tens of thousands of new jobs generate a hefty increase in the county’s piggy bank? That must surely make Skip and his boys salivate at the prospect of more $$$ to keep buying votes from the non-workers/non taxpayers.
Thanks for posting the numbers. Very clear that Democrat party rule in Guilford County is fiscally unsound and dangerous, continuing a rapid decline. They fall in line with the Democrat party rule not bucking the tax, Tax, Tax and spend, spend, spend policies l. Leaving us to suffer the consequences of an aging county in decline. Registered Democrat and Liberal UNA voters need to wake up and realize that the smell of roses has become a putrid aroma in Greensboro, High Point, and Guilford County under these Democrats.
If everyone is looking for the money, I suggest you turn out Skippy boys pockets. Check between his mattresses. I would not be surprised to find that all that money found its way mysteriously into his possession.
Thank your lucky stars that the Commissioners cannot print money as the federal government can and does. That’s one reason our country has such huge debt.
Another Democrat spending problem. Buying votes while lining their own pockets.
You do realize that the current administration at the highest level of the Federal Government is doing just now what you are calling out Democrats for doing? The only difference is that the Federal Government can just blindly run up debt and claim to be fiscally responsible…while local and state governments have to seek approval for debt or balance the budget. I prefer a balanced budget versus blindly running up debt. Which do you prefer?