Guilford County taxpayers are on track to repay more than $3.6 billion in debt over the coming decades – a long-term financial commitment that extends to about 2050 under current projections.
And that number is just the current debt. The Board of Commissioners has already been discussing the need for another large school bond referendum down the line because inflation has forced a number of promised school projects onto the cutting room floor, and the board is also considering a downtown campus and renovation project expected to cost more than $170 million that would be added on top of that.
Additional Guilford Technical Community College borrowing is also being discussed, along with other expensive county wants and needs.
That current $3.6 billion total includes roughly $2.38 billion in borrowed money and another $1.13 billion in interest, according to the county’s adopted budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.
Like with a home mortgage, the county pays interest over time, which significantly increases the total cost beyond the original amount borrowed.
The size and length of that obligation are largely driven by, of course, school construction, which accounts for the biggest share of the county’s borrowing and is expected to keep debt payments elevated for years to come. Each year, the county spends about 45 percent of its total budget on education-related costs, including capital expenditures, operating expenses and school debt repayment.
Most of the county’s debt is tied to projects for Guilford County Schools, with smaller portions going toward Guilford Technical Community College and county government needs such as buildings, equipment and infrastructure.
For the current fiscal year, Guilford County budgeted about $121.7 million for debt service – the annual cost of paying back principal and interest. That growing debt burden is one factor the commissioners are weighing as they prepare to adopt a new budget in the coming months, one which will be based on sharply higher property values following the county’s most recent revaluation.
County officials routinely use debt to fund major capital projects such as new schools, detention facilities, emergency services buildings and other infrastructure.
By borrowing the money upfront, the county spreads the cost over the life of those assets, usually the debt goes out about 20 years.
The largest driver behind the county’s current debt trajectory is the $1.7 billion school bond referendum approved by voters in 2022. The county has already issued a significant portion of that debt, including a $570 million bond issuance in early 2025, with additional borrowing expected in the years ahead.
That $1.7 billion referendum came just two years after voters approved a separate $300 million school bond package.
County projections in the last adopted budget show major future issuances planned for fiscal years 2028 and 2030, which will push annual debt payments higher before they eventually begin to decline.
Under current projections that include both existing and planned borrowing, total annual debt service is expected to rise into the range of $150 million to more than $200 million in the early 2030s before tapering off in later years. That’s money that must be paid each year before spending one dime for core services such as law enforcement, public health and other county operations.
Here’s a scary fact: Guilford County remains below its legal borrowing limit, which means it still has significant capacity to take on additional debt. North Carolina law caps county debt at 8 percent of the total assessed value of taxable property. Under the previous property values, Guilford County’s debt was estimated at just over 3 percent of that total, leaving roughly $3.5 billion in remaining borrowing capacity.
However, the county’s 2026 revaluation increased property values by an average of more than 45 percent. That increase significantly expands the county’s legal borrowing limit, meaning Guilford County could now take on more than $5 billion in additional debt and still remain within state law.
While the county has adopted its own internal debt policies that are more restrictive than state law, those policies can be changed by a vote of the Board of Commissioners. In recent work sessions, the commissioners and staff have explored the idea or doing so.
In addition to school construction, the county uses debt to fund vehicle purchases, public safety radio systems and various county facilities. Some of those purchases are financed over shorter periods, such as four-year installment loans.
Current projections show most of the county’s existing debt being paid off by the mid-2040s. However, when future borrowing is included – such as the continued issuance of school bonds already approved by voters – debt payments are expected to extend to about 2050.
And long before that day arrives, the county will certainly take on additional debt.
“Here’s a scary fact: Guilford County remains below its legal borrowing limit, which means it still has significant capacity to take on additional debt. North Carolina law caps county debt at 8 percent of the total assessed value of taxable property. Under the previous property values, Guilford County’s debt was estimated at just over 3 percent of that total, leaving roughly $3.5 billion in remaining borrowing capacity.
However, the county’s 2026 revaluation increased property values by an average of more than 45 percent. That increase significantly expands the county’s legal borrowing limit, meaning Guilford County could now take on more than $5 billion in additional debt and still remain within state law.”
Scott, IMO those two paragraphs make the case for why the current Guilford County Board of Commissars not only needs to be replaced, they need to be run out of town on nail studded rails. I want to thank you for putting down in black and white the reason for why Skip the Omnipotent and his merry band of yes-men rape those they see as their own personal flock of geese laying golden eggs on command. Add to that the KNOWN scrimshaw the commissars pass out in he form taxpayers money to NPOs.
From the Rhino Times dated 20 April 2026 “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.”
This, IMO, is a classic example of the Skip Alston Two-Step. Yes Chris/Christopher Rice/professor/Sybil/The other names you’ve used, it’s a small percentage of the budget, but why did they wait until the last minute to add it afterwards sometime in the night. Your argument is a distraction because, again IMO, it’s actually an investment ‘We don’t get money from the Commissars how can we help you?’
The line is the majority is ‘for the children’. MALE BOVINE MEADOW MUFFINS! Instead of increasing spending how about looking at what is NECESSARY. How many Vice/Assistant-Principals does a school needed? How many of these ‘classes’ are necessary? How many new schools have been built, let alone the exsisting ones needing repairs getting serviced?
Read this to your child and ask them where it might be found…”He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”. Hint: Founding Document.
Again, IMO Skip the Omnipotent and HIS Board of Commissars don’t care about us peasants out here in HIS Fiefdom.
Thank you Scott for this article in which you pull away the veil and show just how bad We the People are continuing to be treated not as constituents but as some people’s cash cow, as their bottomless piggy bank. And while I’m holding ‘peoples representatives’ primarily responsible I cannot and will not avoid pointing a finger at the people who can do something about…the citizens of Guilford County that choose to continue to sit in front of their TVs and watch Dancing Wit The Stars instead of going out and exercising their RIGHT, their DUTY to vote. If all you do is wave your finger and say “bad dog” every time the puppy pees on the carpet, you are getting what you deserve.
CARPE DIEM
Love you are thinking of me Little Man! They added an allocation to provide Nonprofits, it is a fairly standard budgeting approach for small allocations of budget. Not complicated. Doesn’t require a conspiracy theory but you be you.
Easy to comment on when you don’t have a dog in the fight.
Easy to say when you have nothing invested in Guilford County….Chris
My kids still live there.
So you pay their tax bill every year? If not, what’s your point.
It’s called love and concern.
Someone summon Skip to my Lou!
ask and you shall receive!
skip has no idea what hes doing. the only skills he has are those that get his big $ donors to funel him money and expand his illegal laundring&smuggling skemes ! no idea how to deal with anything financial..
I think Black Sabbath had something to say about this:
You’ve nothing to say
They’re breaking away
If you listen to fools
The mob rules
It is always scary when someone spends someone else’s money and benefits ….this is why participation in elections is important…. Everything passing by super majority also concerns me… it did not use to be that way and the few descending votes were always spot on…..you pass mine and I will pass yours is a dead
end street
Some people want money from county and they have a welcome red carpet and blank checks waiting. Others– not one member of county board will return a call or email. I want to protect my well as no one will sell us water in Summerfield. Protecting our water should be very important–no one cares. Town manager bragging about recent trip to his FAVORITE CASH STATION — COUNTY BOARD and bragged how he will get millions–even specific about who and what was promised. Town manager, “Twit” is a former fraudulent mattress salesman and town council are “spendaholics.”.
Summerfield has no financial records posted — all secret Last time town financial records were publicly posted was March 10th. Summerfield knows county is their cash station. Will anyone at County please tell me what town is building with $6.6 million from the county??? Must be completed by December 31, 2026 for federal gift–but county doens’t care about any of the rules.
This is exactly the kind of spending that cannot be tolerated any longer. When you step back and look at the numbers, we are talking about billions in long-term obligations stretching out to 2050 and beyond, with taxpayers ultimately paying far more than the original borrowed amounts once interest is included.
At some point, this stops being “investment” and starts becoming a burden placed squarely on the backs of future generations. There has to be a line, and right now it feels like no one in county leadership is willing to define it. Even basic questions like “how much debt is too much?” still don’t have a clear answer.
We need a full, independent audit of current spending, debt structure, and long-term obligations. The public deserves transparency. Where is every dollar going? How much of this spending is truly necessary, and how much is being directed toward favored projects, partners, or connected interests?
Citizens are right to ask tough questions. How much of this money is going to friends, family, or businesses tied to those making the decisions? Why are mechanisms in place that allow continued borrowing without direct voter approval?
Guilford County is heading down a path that is simply not sustainable. Eventually, taxpayers will wake up. When they do, I believe they will demand leadership that understands budgeting, accountability, and long-term responsibility. We need business-minded leaders who treat taxpayer dollars with the same discipline as their own, not as an endless line of credit.
The lack of transparency is troubling. The scale of the debt is even more troubling. And the time to address both is now.
People you get what you voted for. A bunch of theives who only care about pleasing their base and getting to stay in office and milk the taxpayer with nothng to show in return. COMMON SENSE please!!! You do not buy something if you cannot afford it. Do not expect others to pay for it at their sacrifice and pain. At some time it will catch up with you and you will be broke.
Conservatives don’t even try in most GC districts anymore. No choice is what enables a poor-quality leader like Skip to retain power and control regardless of performance. Conservatives need a better message for inner-city low-income areas other than ‘it your fault, lift yourself by your bootstraps’ etc…
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They don’t try because it’s pointless. I think I recall John Blust relating how he once canvassed personally in heavily black areas – and it made no difference at all on election day.
To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, “All politics is racial”. Or to put it more pragmatically, what’s the point of running against someone like Skip Alston in a black district?
Sisyphean task.
That is called quitting.
I don’t understand why anyone in their right mind would let Skip Alston have anything to do with managing the money for the county anyway. He went so far in debt with that travesty of a so-called museum downtown because he was mismanaging money and pocketing a lot of it. It’s a known fact that they owed Duke power thousands of dollars and got mad because Duke power wouldn’t write it off. They sent a lawyer to Duke Power demanding that they write off the majority of it in the end. He has a habit of going into local owned businesses and asking for freebies for that museum. I have seen that personally. He walks into these businesses like he is God himself. He was kicked off the board of the museum for mismanaging money and somehow got right back on it thanks to his butt buddy Earl. And we are trusting him to decide where County money goes? And how much goes where? Seriously! I would have somebody come in here and do an audit on Guilford County. It would not surprise me to find money is missing or has been misappropriated. When you have somebody like skip away with your money Alston involved, after everything he has done, you can guarantee something ain’t right and money ain’t going where it’s supposed to.
Skips BS started when he talked the city into letting him have control and management of the St. James housing project about 20 +\- years ago. Within a year it was over a million dollars in the red. It was torn down not too long after. Skip’s legacy continues
Hence the name I have given him…Skip the Omnipotent (All Hail He Who Must Be Obeyed)
Pat, you answered your own question with “…anyone in their right mind…”.
Those that support Skip the Omnipotent are, IMO, mindless drones (Commissars and non-Commissars alike) that are afraid they will be cut off from the county teat if their Lord and Master was run out of office (preferably on an aforementioned nail studded rail).
We need to face a cold hard fact folks. NOBODY, Democrat or Republican, on the Board of Commissars cares about those of us who are seen as peasants.
I have become a believer in term limits and this Board this Board is the quintessential of an example of why it’s needed. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but is there nothing that says we the downtrodden can’t get it.
Note: Here’s your chance really excel in your childlike insulting Christian C Rice/Chris/professor/Polly Pocket/Sybil/whatever else you’ve used while ignoring the real subject that doesn’t even affect you.
It might be different if we didn’t know the money would be wasted and misappropriated
This article did not even talk about 2/3 bonds, which will allow for another $billion in slush funds with no restrictions
Fiscal INCOMPETENCE.
sahmjahn Else,
You’re thinking along the right line, just the wrong word.
“INCOMPETENCE” implies someone is trying to unsuccessfully show they have expertise or knowledge on a subject. The Omnipotent One knows exactly what he is doing. I think a better term is Fiscal INDIFFERENCE with a dash of ‘I don’t give a rodent’s hindquarters.
If the County had more forward-thinking leadership in the 2010s we would have invested in all of these infrastructure projects while they were cheap. Low interest rates, construction workers desperate for work, low prices, but instead we got revenue neutral budgets. How “revenue neutral” is a deferred maintenance expense of almost $4 Billion dollars? We could be done already for half that and reaping the benefits, but instead we’re likely in for a decade-long fiscal dogfight. The lesson to me is simple, the next time someone tells you we need to tighten our belts with a conservative revenue-neutral budget while your EMS works are leaving your superintendent is telling you their buildings are falling apart, you need to show that person the door.