The City Council next week is expected to pass the 2022-2023 budget of about $680 million, which will include the largest tax increase in the history of Greensboro.

Each year, when the City Council approves the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, it also approves a recommended budget for the next fiscal year.

In June 2021, the City Council approved a $619 million budget for 2021-2022 and a recommended budget for 2022-2023 of $633 million.  The projected budget for 2022-2023 also projected that the tax rate would remain the same at 66.25.  However, with the revaluation the equivalent tax rate for 2022-2023 would be 54.56.

This was the budget and tax rate recommended by former City Manager David Parrish and current Budget and Evaluation Director Jon Decker in 2021.

In 2021, there was no indication in the projected budget for 2022-2023 that the city would need a massive increase in spending, paid for with a massive increase in property tax revenue.

When Parrish resigned shortly after the 2021-2022 budget and the recommended 2022-2023 budgets were passed, he received nothing but praise from the City Council about the good job he had done as manager including his fiscal policies.

It seems that some member of the City Council should be asking how Parrish got it so wrong.  How could Parrish project that the city could be effectively run in 2022-2023 for a mere $633 million when current City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba, who was hired in February, states that the city needs a budget of $680 million?

Why did Parrish state that no tax increase would be needed in the 2022-2023 fiscal year when Jaiyeoba insists that a tax increase equivalent to 8.69 cents is necessary.

Councilmembers Yvonne Johnson, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Tammi Thurm, Nancy Hoffmann and Sharon Hightower, who support the proposed budget, don’t appear to have any questions about the sudden need for a massive increase in spending.

However, it does seem like Mayor Nancy Vaughan, City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Justin Outling and Councilmember Hugh Holston, who said they could not support the proposed budget, could ask a few questions about why the city needs an additional 61.75 employees and needs to increase the spending over the current year by $60 million.