For years and years, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners has passed a budget on Thursday nights; however, since Thursday, June 19 is a holiday, the board passed the fiscal 2025-2026 budget this year on Wednesday, June 18.
The new budget, the largest in the history of Guilford County, totals out at $847.3 million.
One month ago, Guilford County Manager Mike Halford proposed a budget totaling 841.7 million; however, the commissioners threw in more millions for Guilford County Schools and other things to arrive at the new budget, which was adopted along straight party lines. The seven Democratic commissioners voted yes and the two Republicans – Commissioners Pat Tillman and Alan Perdue – voted no.
The new budget, as expected, keeps the county’s property tax rate the same: 73.05 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said at the meeting that this year’s budget was a very difficult one to put together. He said the county had $93 million in additional requests from county staff, the school system and others, and to meet all those wants would have meant a 10 to 12 cent tax increase. Alston said the schools didn’t get what they wanted or needed; however, the commissioners’ budget did increase school funding by $12.3 million over last year, and roughly $10 million more than Halford recommended in his budget. Nearly $2 million of that money will be used to enhance school security.
“The adoption of this balanced budget reflects the Board of Commissioners’ continued commitment to responsible fiscal management and to the residents of Guilford County,” Alston said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “We continue to work together to ensure that every dollar is used to strengthen our community, from our ongoing support of public education to investing in emergency services, public health, human services and other essential programs that serve and keep our residents across the county healthy and secure. This budget strives to meet the growing needs of our community as we continue to invest in our local economic development efforts and build a stronger future for all who call Guilford County home.”
While one might question the “responsible fiscal management” of this current board – which has taken on $3 billion in debt and ravaged the county’s savings account over the last three years – the budget certainly does make a lot of people happy by funding a lot of needs and wants.
Here are some of the notable items in the new budget:
- An additional $97,000 for the Family Justice Center to add one “navigator” position to support child trauma and adult justice initiatives as well as $100,000 to support Camp HOPE, which provides positive experiences for children who have undergone trauma.
- An additional $325,000 for the Guilford County Tax Department for the addition of a business analyst and two commercial property appraisers.
- An additional $130,300 for the Planning and Development Department for the addition of one water quality specialist position meant to enhance the county’s watershed and stormwater program.
- An additional $231,250 to support the Sheriff’s Office’s real-time crime center, an upgraded radio communications system, and the county’s reentry program, which assists former inmates who are transitioning back into society.
- An additional $417,912 to support the Tenant Education Advocacy Mediation (TEAM) program. That program attempts to find ways to keep people from getting evicted and it’s an effort by the board to reduce homelessness in the county.
- The budget approves continued funding from Opioid Settlement Funds to address the ongoing opioid crisis in the community.
One point of contention each year is which non-profits get funding from the county. It’s always controversial because many citizens know that the commissioners are in some cases giving money to organizations run by their friends or to groups they have ties with. This year the commissioners did something really interesting: They punted. The budget sets aside $1.74 million for Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and $565,000 for Economic Development Organizations (EDOs).
However, the Community Based Organizations will be awarded their money in July 2025. That’s never happened before. Alston told the Rhino Times it was because the board wanted more time to go through the 200 applications for that money, however, the change also may help it be a less controversial announcement in July, when people aren’t paying as much attention to budget matters and a lot of county residents will be relaxing at the beach.
The budget includes a total of 3,071.75 county positions. This is equivalent to about 5.5 positions per 1,000 residents. Halford always likes to point out that this is one of the lowest position-to-resident ratios in the state.
The budget adds 26 social worker positions to Children Services for assessment and foster care services, eight new positions to support Food and Nutrition Services application processing, and three new eligibility caseworker positions for daycare services.
It adds 24 positions to Emergency Services, including paramedics, EMTs, and four additional “peak demand units” meant to improve response times and unit availability.
It also adds four positions to the Division of Public Health to support high-risk pregnancies.
It includes $300,000 to expand support for the Continuum of Care for Guilford County to become the Collaborative Applicant/Lead Agency to continue addressing homelessness.
The new fiscal 2025-2026 budget also offers $600,000 for Animal Services for the addition of eight much needed positions “to steady operations, expand coverage for animal control, stabilize part-time needs, and expand oversight of the foster rescue program.”
The new budget also includes $400,000 in additional funding for the Security Department to convert contracted positions to 25 full-time positions.
The fiscal year for this budget starts on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, and runs through Tuesday, June 30, 2026.
Complete budget information can be found on Guilford County’s website at guilfordcountync.gov/countybudget.
.
