The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has been spending money like crazy in recent years, but the good news is that they are not running out largely due to the big rise in tax bills property owners saw after the 2022 revaluation, when the board decided to keep the tax rate the same even though that meant people’s tax bills would go up 25, 30, or 35 percent or so.
About seven months into the current fiscal year, Guilford County’s finances are tracking largely as expected, according to a recent budget update presented to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.
County budget staff presented the fiscal 2025-2026 Budget Performance Report through January to commissioners at their Thursday, March 5 meeting.
The report provides a snapshot of how county revenues and spending are progressing compared with the budget that commissioners adopted last June.
Because Guilford County’s fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30, the report covers roughly the first seven months of the fiscal year.
The update shows that the county’s largest revenue source – property taxes – is coming in about where it usually does at this point in the fiscal year.
According to the report, property tax collections through January total about 60 percent of the amount budgeted for the year, which is roughly in line with the pace seen in previous years.
That timing isn’t unusual: A large share of property tax payments arrives in the fall and early winter as property owners pay their tax bills before the January deadline.
Other revenue sources often appear lower in early reports due to timing issues.
Sales tax revenue, for instance, typically shows up several months after the economic activity that generated it. That means early-year budget reports don’t yet reflect the full picture for sales tax collections.
On the spending side, the county’s expenditures are also tracking at levels that budget officials say are typical for this point in the fiscal year.
Many county departments spread spending throughout the year, and some major expenditures occur later in the budget cycle. As a result, early and mid-year reports rarely show spending that matches the final annual totals.
The report also noted that the county currently has several hundred vacant positions across departments. The commissioners often use that unpaid salary money as a type of slush fund to pay for things in the middle of the year that they want but did not allocate money for when the budget was adopted in June.
Those vacancies can temporarily reduce personnel spending but also reflect ongoing hiring challenges that many local governments have faced in recent years.
Budget performance reports such as this one presented to the Board of Commissioners on Thursday, March 5 serve as regular financial checkpoints for commissioners. They allow the board to monitor how revenues and spending are pacing and to flag any potential problems before the end of the fiscal year.
So far, however, the mid-year snapshot doesn’t suggest any major surprises.
The update also comes as the county begins gearing up for its next budget cycle. Over the coming months, departments will submit budget requests for the next fiscal year, and the county manager will present a recommended budget to commissioners in May.
Commissioners will then hold public hearings and negotiate the final spending plan before adopting a new county budget in June.
The 800-pound elephant in the room is whether or not the Board of Commissioners this year will lower the tax rate to keep it revenue neutral or just lower it somewhat, thus increasing everyone’s property tax bills again.
The 800-pound elephant in the room is whether or not the Board of Commissioners this year will lower the tax rate to keep it revenue neutral or just lower it somewhat, thus increasing everyone’s property tax bills again.”
Really Scott? Do you honestly believe that Skip the Omnipotent and his herd of lackeys who laughingly call themselves “representatives of the people” are going to be the least bit concerned about the peasant slaves in the county? Do you really think he’s going to pass up the opportunity to get his magnificent palace built and named after him? Do you truly think he’s concerned about We the People?
I see and hear people talking about voting the bums out, but without term limits I believe we are destined to live with these collars around our necks while his legalized thugs, aka tax collectors, drain the hard earned life’s blood from us.
And meanwhile I hear he’s looking for bidders to dig the moat around his keep and interviewing potential ‘protective service personnel’ for his estate.
Carpe Diem
a caught a carp one day . . . unpalatable
you have to feed it first….
Yeah and I’m curious who’s going to pay for that personnel. We the taxpayers? Of course we are because he always has a way to put money from our pockets into his. He should have been removed a long long time ago. We absolutely need term limits. Especially because of trash like him.
well at least we didnt displace 1 million dollars like winston salem forsyth county schools…dang idiots…
No, we really do not have to live under them. We have the opportunity to move Outside of Guildford County. We Can all choose to move to our surrounding areas such as Summerfield, Kernersville, Trinity or any of the surrounding cities which do not choose to tax our homes to the point that we do not have enough to have any quality of life, much less food to provide for some families. Revenue Neutral should be mandatory by lowering the tax rate per appraised dollar.
Your number should be 46 million and change because that’s what it was.
wut happened ? anyone accused of incompetence ?
i think they were audited by the state but the story went silent after that as usual. we cant even have the dang local news cover local events anymore. for all i know they probably swept it under the rug and are burning through a massive defecit still as we speak. i dont get how anyone chooses to live in winston salem. that place is a woke mans dream i tell you
Thanks Scott but my faith and belief in the county commissioners and city council was flushed down the toilet years ago. Mouths open and lies come forth. Let the tax dollar waste begin.
People who do not pay property taxes (don’t own a home) should not be allowed to vote on issues that will be funded by those of us who DO own property and pay property taxes!
Renters pay property taxes too. “Whether you rent or whether you buy, you pay for the home you occupy.”
The only people who don’t pay property taxes are those who do no work, earn no income, have no money saved, and live like leeches off the rest of us. Even if they live in a house and “pay” rent, the rent is paid with someone else’s money.
So you want to go back to Revolutionary times? huh
i don’t own a home & agree with u
Maybe the Guilford County commissioners should stop putting our tax money into these nonprofits and put it into things that the county actually needs. Half of these nonprofits, no one knows what they do or anything about them. Why are we giving them money? Half of them turn out to be fake. Guilford County should not be giving money to a non-profit, especially a nonprofit that Alston or anyone else on the County commissioners is part of!! They should not be giving money to any non-profit that their relatives are part of or anybody in their family is part of. Surely that is considered a conflict of interest. If we want to give money to non-profits, we should donate it ourselves and not let the county take our hard-earned tax money and do it. They literally gave millions to nonprofits recently. That is money they could have used to keep Guilford County going and be able to hire more employees. That way they wouldn’t have to go up on our tax rates. But everyone knows that Skippy boy is determined to take everything we own away from us. He owns that realty company and there is no doubt in my mind he will use that to buy up all the property people lose. It’s all a scam with our commissioners. That’s all it is.
ole skippy can say he doesn’t need all of the $175 Million the county will receive if they keep the property tax mil rate the same. REALLY? If that is true, will ole skippy and the other tax and spend democrats who control Guilford County actually cut the mil rate? Actually ole skippy and his cult members may just do that. WHY? Because they want to permanently RAISE SALES TAXES. So if they drop the mil rate to save property owners a total of $20 Million, they will recoup that $20 Million by RAISING THE SALES TAX. So one way or another, they will take the full $175 Million from property owners one way or another.
ole skippy and his tax and spend liberal cult members will NEVER reduce taxes or collect fewer dollars from taxpayers and property owners in Guilford. They will TAKE EVERY PENNY FROM YOU ANYWAY THEY CAN AND NOT BAT AN EYE OR SHED A TEAR FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE HARMED BY THEIR RAVENOUS APPETITE FOR ALL OF YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY.
The democrat controlled county commissioners and the democrat controlled school board ILLEGALLY WORKED TOGETHER TO PROMOTE THE SCHOOL BONDS. That is not me saying that, that is what a democrat Wake County said.
Representative Alan Branson used his own money to fight this ILLEGAL CONSPIRACY but the democrat Wake County judge said the ILLEGAL ACTIONS of the county and school board were okay with him because the bonds were approved. A few months later Guilford FINALLY ADMITTED that although the county borrowed $1.7 BILLION, taxpayers in Guilford will have to pay $3.4 BILLION over the next 30 days to pay off the bonds. Simple math shows that taxpayers will pay an average of more than $113 MILLION EVERY YEAR to pay off the bonds.
Now ole skippy and the democrat controlled county commissioners want to build a new $572 MILLION county office complex AND want to borrow ANOTHER $550 MILLION for schools.
If you add together JUST THESE 3 DEBTS, TAXPAYERS WILL PAY OVER $200 MILLION a year FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS TO PAY OFF THESE PROJECTS. You also know that Guilford will BORROW MONEY TIME AND TIME AGAIN OVER THE NEXT 30 YEARS WHICH MEANS TAXPAYERS (YOU, YOUR KIDS AND GRAND KIDS) WILL BE PAYING $300 MILLION, $400 MILLION OR EVEN $500 MILLION, THAT’S HALF A BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR TO PAY OFF THE TAX AND SPEND POLICIES ENFORCED BY THE TAX AND SPEND LIBERAL DEMOCRATS WHO CONTROL THE COUNTY AND SCHOOL BOARD.
Is THIS really the financial legacy you want to leave for your kids and grand kids? Do YOU REALLY WANT TO DIG A FINANCIAL HOLE THEY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CLIMB OUR OF? If you allow democrats to do this, YOU, and ONLY YOU will be responsible for leaving your kids in debt up to their eyeballs. You can forget buying a home, raising a family (your grand kids) because it will be FINANCIALLY DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO DO.
The SOLUTION is to VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS IN EVERY ELECTION FOR EVERY ELECTED OFFICE FROM DOG CATCHER TO EVERY CITY, COUNTY, STATE AND FEDERAL OFFICE.
VOTE FOR EVERY REPUBLICAN THIS YEAR AND EVERY YEAR. Then hold them accountable to make sure they properly manage YOUR money.
I agree 1,000 times over!
The govt will never run out of money (power). They’ll soak the taxpayer; and ultimately just borrow it.