City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba presented his Brobdingnagian recommended budget to the Greensboro City Council at the Tuesday, May 16 meeting.
The manager’s $749 million budget includes a 4-cent property tax increase, as reported by the Rhino Times on Monday, May 15, which is in addition to the equivalent of an 8.69 cent increase last year.
In the year and a half that Jaiyeoba has been Greensboro city manager, he has recommended that the property tax rate be increased by 12.69 cents, and those large tax increases result in a budget that has increased from $590 million in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, before Jaiyeoba came to Greensboro, to $749 million in 2023-2024.
In 2021-2022, the city took in $197.5 million in property tax revenue. It is projected that in 2023-2024 the property tax revenue will increase to $252 million. So, if you feel like you’re paying a lot more in property taxes, it’s because you are. And if the City Council passes this budget with the 4 cent tax increase to 67.25 cents, then you’ll be paying a lot more.
Sales tax revenue by comparison in 2021-2022 was $80 million and is projected to increase to $88.6 million in 2023-2024.
The city manager recommends a budget each year, but it is only a recommendation to the City Council. Last year, Jaiyeoba recommended the equivalent of an 11.69 cent tax increase when the City Council had requested a budget with no tax increase. The compromise was that Jaiyeoba reduced the tax increase to the equivalent of 8.69 cents while at the same time increasing expenditures. So, while the tax rate was reduced by 3 cents from the manager’s recommended budget, the expenditures increased from the manager’s recommended budget.
The City Council is scheduled to hold two budget work sessions next week. One at 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 23 in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber. And the second at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 25 in the Plaza Level Conference Room.
For those interested in watching a broadcast of a City Council budget work session, the Tuesday, May 23 meeting in the Council Chamber is the one to watch. In the Council Chamber viewers can see and hear councilmembers.
The poor quality of the broadcast from the Plaza Level Conference Room makes it extremely difficult to follow the discussion.
Usually during the work sessions the councilmembers spend their time arguing about a couple hundred thousand dollars here and a couple hundred thousand dollars there and, like last year, the final budget is very close to what the manager recommended.
And still can’t pay a competitive wage for public safety staff.
I can only pray this council will at least be concerned with the taxpayers and not pass this ridiculous proposal. There is way to much waste on socialist programs now.
Who is this person and why is he in Greensboro?
We have the third highest property tax rate in the state (http://www.tax-rates.org/north_carolina/property-tax ) yet our standard of living is far below that of Mecklenburg or Durham County.
Our law enforcement officers are paid below average, and our teachers are as well. It’s time we checked the priorities of elected and hired City officials.
Can we have a courtesy flush here?! It’s always easier to spend other people’s money stolen at gunpoint! Think you own anything? Don’t pay your ‘property tax’ and see what happens. It’s theft no matter who does it.
Why does Greensboro, North Carolina, have a City Manager who is an African Marxist – literally?
It’s time for Toby to go.
Easy question to answer, because he is an African Marxist. That’s what GCC likes.
Manager following Mandate Mayor and her cabal of grifters. Always raise taxes, never fund public safety, give money to projects outside of city limits, fund donor class nonprofits, and enrich ticketmaster thru monopolist practices. Unsustainable taxation will eventually oust these career nogoodniks.
Again all they are looking at is how can we make the people pay more for things they do not want or need, but make us look good. Talk is cheap and actions speak volumes. Make the people who do not pay taxes continue to ride on the backs of those who do.
Just fire him. He has no idea what he is supposed to do. There are too many examples that have been obvious to the public. He cares for the employees but not the citizens who pay all of those salaries. Perhaps he was not informed that he’s in Greensboro now, not Charlotte. This isn’t the land of the rich. This is the land of the rich and the poor and a middle class that is disappearing. They get no assistance and cannot afford to live here anymore…..go to the county or Randolph or Rockingham County.
The city manager needs a whopping…..