The Guilford County commissioners, school system leaders, community organizations and others who want to see a quarter-cent sales tax hike in Guilford County have spent nearly two decades explaining the benefits of such a tax increase but time and time again county voters have said no.

Now, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston is in talks with NC Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger to see if the state will go along with a change that Guilford County commissioners have asked of the state for a long, long time.

County leaders and others who want to see a sales tax hike pass in Guilford County are seeking to put language on the next ballot that would allow the voters to know what the added tax revenues would be used for. There’s a belief among Alston, Commissioner Kay Cashion and others on the board that if the county could include ballot language that commits those revenues to a specific use – in this case, school system employee wage increases – then that might be the final push that convinces Guilford County voters to approve a sales tax increase.

Alston told the Rhino Times this week that the Board of Commissioners is– yet again – going to put the sales tax hike on the ballot for the statewide Primary Election on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

Currently, North Carolina law does not allow the language on the ballot to name the specific purpose for which funds would be used.

Alston also said that he had been in talks with Berger and other state legislators to get the law changed so that when Guilford County voters see the ballot the promise to use it for schools will be on there.

“We still have some disagreement on what should be allowed,” Alston said of his talks with Berger regarding allowing the language, but he added that at this point he, Alston, did not wish to go into specifics as to what the sticking points were.  He added that he is hopeful the county will be allowed to use very specific language on the 2026 ballot.

In past years, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners has adopted resolutions prior to elections promising that the board would use the extra sales tax revenue to support the schools; however, only people who follow the local news closely really knew about that, and frankly, many who did know about the resolutions didn’t think that the board would follow through.

 It’s a time worn rule of county government that current boards cannot commit future boards to actions, and, besides, another argument made by tax hike opponents is that county funds are fungible.  So, this board or future boards may very well use that additional revenue – somewhere around $30 million a year – for school system salaries; however, critics suggest the board could just consider that money as having freed up #30 million somewhere else in the budget that could be used for anything the commissioners desired.

When Alston was asked why nearly half the counties across the state had voted to approve a sales tax hike, yet Guilford County voters never had, the chairman said, “I don’t know,” and added it would be a big benefit to the residents if they did approve the increase.

The last time the sales tax appeared on the ballot Alston thought the promise to use the money for school system salary hikes would help, but the measure still did not come close to passing.

Proponents have presented over and over again the arguments until they are blue in the face, but to no avail:

  • Much of it would be paid by people outside the county who work, shop or are just driving through.
  • It’s paid by people who don’t own property so it helps take some of the burden of funding the county off the backs of property owners in Guilford County.
  • It is a small, almost unnoticeable amount that would not make a difference in a person’s purchasing power, but, collectively, it could amount to $30 million or more annually for county revenues.

Guilford County Commissioner Frankie Jones made that argument the last time the sales tax was on the ballot. At a televised county commissioners meeting when many commissioners were encouraging voters to approve the tax, Jones went into detail about what a minuscule amount it actually added to a bill.  He said he thought many people heard “quarter cent” sales tax increase and thought it meant an increase of a quarter.  Instead, he pointed out, it is just a “fraction of a penny.”

Also, sales tax hike proponents point out frequently that the tax wouldn’t apply to everything sold. Here are some items that would be excluded:

Prescriptions

Motor Vehicles

Some Medical Equipment

Gasoline

Non-Prepared Food or Groceries

Still Guilford County voters do not seem convinced.  The rejection of the idea last November came after a string of other rejections.

In 2007, the NC General Assembly first voted to allow counties to increase their sales tax by a quarter of a cent – if county voters approved the measure.  So, the very first time Guilford County government could do so, it put the tax hike on the 2008 Primary ballot, where it failed.

Since it failed, the commissioners put it back on the ballot – six months later – on the November ballot that year, only to see it fail again.

Guilford County then put the measure on the ballot in the General Elections in 2010 and in 2014 and once again in 2020.  Fail, fail, fail.

The board later put it on the 2022 Primary Election ballot – where fewer voters turn out than they do in General Elections.

Once again it didn’t pass.

Fourteen years ago, advocates nearly managed to get the sales tax increase passed: It came close to approval in the 2010 General Election, when 66,198 people voted for it, while 70,022 voted no.

That vote ended up with 49 percent voting yes and 51 percent voting against.

Advocates are hoping that early next year the vote will finally be different than it has been in the past.

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