The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has had voters tell it repeatedly for nearly two decades that taxpayers don’t want a new sales tax hike, but that hasn’t stopped the board from continuing to put the measure on the ballot election after election.

The commissioners are now hoping the eighth time is a charm.

At its upcoming Thursday, Aug. 6 meeting, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is set to adopt a resolution officially directing the Guilford County Board of Elections to place the proposed sales tax increase on the Tuesday, Nov. 3 ballot.

The board keeps putting a quarter-cent sales tax increase before voters only to see it shot down again and again. The new wrinkle this time is that legislation passed by the state allows the board to word the ballot measure to include exactly how the money would be used.

The referendum will ask Guilford County voters once again to approve an additional local sales and use tax of one-fourth of one percent, with most of the revenue going toward classroom teacher salary supplements.

The commissioners have been planning the new attempt at passing the tax since June 2025, when the board adopted an initial resolution setting the referendum process in motion. Since then, they’ve spent considerable time deciding how the money would be divided and, perhaps just as importantly, exactly how the proposal would be presented to voters.

County leaders hope that the new ballot language approved by the NC General Assembly will make the tax and its proposed uses easier for voters to understand – and easier to swallow.

The ballot question is now set to read: “Local sales and use tax at the rate of one-fourth of one percent (0.25%) in addition to all other State and local sales and use taxes to be used solely for classroom teacher salary supplements (70%), for fire protection equipment and services (18%), for Guilford Technical Community College (8%), and for qualifying municipalities for allowable expenses (4%).”

The Guilford County commissioners spent a whole lot of time at a December 2025 work session debating not only how to divide the money but also the exact words voters would see in voting booths and on mail-in ballots.

At the time, state law called for the ballot to describe the proposed increase as “one-quarter of one percent.” Several commissioners thought that wording sounded larger and more ominous than the actual tax increase.

Commissioners suggested using “one-fourth of one percent,” “one-fourth of one cent” or even “one-fourth of one penny.”

The “one-fourth” language received considerable support from commissioners –  and the General Assembly ultimately agreed to use it.

The original ballot language also listed the programs that would receive money without stating how much each would receive. The revised language now provides voters with a percentage breakdown.

The new wording is part of a state law passed this summer specifically governing the Guilford County referendum and the distribution of the money if voters approve the tax. With several popular government services benefiting, commissioners hope more residents will vote to increase the sales tax on themselves and visitors who come from outside the county to spend money in the county.

Because 4 percent of the proceeds would be distributed directly to municipalities, the percentages applied to the county’s 96 percent share work out somewhat differently.

Of the money distributed to Guilford County, 73 percent would go toward teacher salary supplements, 19 percent would go to the Guilford County Fire and Rescue Council for equipment, capital expenses and necessary administrative costs, and 8 percent would go to Guilford Technical Community College for capital projects.

The tax is expected to bring in roughly $29 million a year – though the actual amount would rise or fall with the economy and consumer spending.

Former Guilford County Budget Director Toy Beeninga, who’s now deputy county manager, told commissioners during their earlier discussions that the teacher funding could move Guilford County from 16th to about sixth in the state in average local teacher salary supplements.

GTCC would use its share for facility renovations and expansions, including projects intended to support aerospace and advanced manufacturing training.

The Guilford County Fire and Rescue Council would use its share to replace aging fire trucks and other equipment and pay for capital needs.

The county would be permitted to establish a custodial fund to hold and invest the money for the council.

Qualifying municipalities would be allowed to use their shares for permissible public expenses.

The Town of Summerfield would be treated differently. Under the new state law, Summerfield’s allocation would initially go to the Summerfield Fire District for capital improvements involving water resources for fire protection. Once the district has received a cumulative total of $3 million, Summerfield could begin keeping its share for other public purposes.

The law also requires the new revenue to supplement rather than replace existing funding.

That means Guilford County, Guilford County Schools and GTCC couldn’t simply use the new sales tax money to take the place of money already being spent on teacher supplements, fire protection or community college projects.

The original proposal approved by commissioners last year focused primarily on providing more money for Guilford County Schools – particularly for teacher and classified employee pay.

“Classified” employees are school system workers such as custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers who generally receive lower wages.

Guilford County leaders have repeatedly pointed to what they describe as a growing gap between state education funding and the actual needs of the local school system.

This year, there’s been considerable public pushback from school officials who felt that the commissioners dramatically underfunded the school system in the county’s 2026-2027 fiscal year budget, which was adopted at the end of June.

Guilford County has also taken on a massive amount of school construction debt in recent years– not to mention a large number of construction projects for other purposes.

Guilford County voters approved a total of $2 billion in school bonds in 2020 and 2022. When interest is included, paying off that debt is expected to cost county taxpayers over $3.2 billion.

County officials argue that the additional sales tax revenue would provide another source of money for education and other needs rather than forcing the county to continue to rely so heavily on property taxes.

At a previous meeting, Commissioner Frankie Jones noted that a one-fourth-percent sales tax would amount to only an extra nickel on a $20 taxable purchase.

The additional one-fourth-percent tax wouldn’t apply to qualifying groceries, prescription drugs, gasoline or certain other purchases excluded under state law.

Guilford County is be allowed to provide information to the public about how the tax works and how the proceeds would be spent, but legally the county can’t use taxpayer money to spin the measure positively to the public – though it will likely do that anyway, as it has in the past.

That approach hasn’t had much effect, though.

It’s illegal for Guilford County to use taxpayer resources to campaign for passage of the referendum, but county governments are allowed to “educate” voters.

Every time the sales tax issue comes around, however, the county’s efforts to “educate” the public tend to look a whole lot like a sales pitch.

Guilford County voters first saw the proposed tax increase on the ballot in the 2008 primary election, shortly after that the General Assembly gave counties the authority to hold Article 46 sales tax referendums.

After voters rejected it, the county put it on the ballot again in the 2008 general election.

The third attempt came in 2010, when the proposal narrowly failed, with 49 percent voting in favor and 51 percent voting against it.

The measure returned in the 2014 general election and was defeated by a much larger margin, with 43 percent voting for it and 57 percent voting against it.

It appeared again in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

About half the counties in North Carolina have approved the additional sales tax, but Guilford County voters have proven to be very recalcitrant in this regard.

The commissioners hope that the current version – which specifies exactly where the money will go and describes the increase as “one-fourth of one percent” rather than “one-quarter of one percent” – will finally persuade Guilford County voters to approve it.

And so now voters can cheerfully look for

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