Guilford County commissioners and residents won’t see County Manager Mike Halford’s proposed fiscal 2025-2026 budget until May; however, some information the manager recently presented to the Board of Commissioners offers a good deal of insight into what kind of budget he is putting together.

For one thing, it will include a lot of new county positions.

Every May, the Board of Commissioners takes the manager’s budget, holds a public hearing to get public input for that budget, changes some elements – often the amount of funding the schools get, for instance – and then, in June, the board votes to adopt a budget.

That budget determines all county expenditures for the new fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.

 The commissioners met in a work session on Thursday, April 3 in order to continue banging out the new budget and they will have more work sessions over the next three months to debate the matter.

While nothing is set in stone, or even putty yet, Halford has given the commissioners a list of his priorities for the coming fiscal budget.

Here are some highlights:

  • Continue performance-based employee merit program (3 percent) and compensation maintenance (2 percent). Halford has been very, very good to county workers since becoming the county manager several years ago. Employees have gotten substantial raises and much better benefits in recent years. He wants to make sure they are treated well in the future with higher compensation and merit incentives.
  • Reinstate the core major technology, vehicle replacement, county capital, and major equipment replacements. This is a priority for Halford, but some commissioners say they worry that the expected wave of inflation this year may limit what can be done here.
  • Add 26 positions in Child Protective Services “to strengthen assessments and foster care program to align with recommended state ratios.” Several years ago, the county had some horrific things happen due to a lack of oversight of children in its custody. That’s one reason the county wants to beef up that service.
  • Add 24 EMS positions to support peak unit demand and improve response times.
  • Add 8 positions in Social Services “to accommodate demand and processing time standards for residents applying for food and nutrition services.”
  • Add 8 positions in Animal Services to steady operations to expand coverage for animal control as well as to expand oversight of the animal foster rescue program. For years, volunteers at the shelter and other animal welfare advocates have argued that the shelter was severely understaffed.
  • Add 7 positions in Human Services in programs fully funded by outside sources. (That expansion will fortunately require no county funds.) Those positions include 3 daycare services workers, a high-risk pregnancy social worker, a sexually transmitted disease advanced practice provider, a certified medical coder, and a community health educator. While some of that would be paid for with federal dollars, some of that federal money might dry up by budget time given the extensive number of cuts being made in federal funding due to the Department of Government Efficiency.

Another priority, one that doesn’t require adding government positions, is to fund some of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office priorities, including the replacement of the current Criminal Justice Information Service-compliant computers, the jail management and records systems, and replacing law enforcement vehicles that have aged out. In the April 3 work session, Halford expressed concern about the price of cars increasing given the new tariffs now in place.

That’s a nice wish list for the manager, but, if he is to get his wishes, the cash-strapped commissioners will need to find the money for the new priorities somewhere.

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