Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said this week that he sees no reason at all for county residents to get a property tax increase next summer when the county adopts its new 2024-2025 fiscal budget. The chairman – the most powerful Democratic political leader in the county – said Guilford County government can fund its current operations and its plans for the coming fiscal year without the extra revenue that a property tax increase would bring.
Alston, who will be reelected chairman for another year in early December by his fellow commissioners, always gets his way given the current Democratic majority on the board; and, if he doesn’t want or see a property tax hike – which he does not – then there won’t be one.
One reason Guilford County government has enough money without raising taxes is that, when the value of all county property was reassessed in 2022, the Board of Commissioners kept the tax rate the same; however, the giant increase in assessed property values in last year’s reevaluation of all property in the county meant that the county government was pulling in $92 million more than it was before the revaluation.
That’s the reason why property owners saw 25 and 30 percent tax bill increases even though the tax rate remained the same.
When a Republican majority held control of the Board of Commissioners from 2012 until 2020, the board reduced the tax rate after revaluations to the “revenue-neutral level,” which meant that the county didn’t see a tax revenue increase as a result of the revaluation – and also meant the taxpayers didn’t see their property taxes increase.
That $92 million is a recurring amount of new revenue that the county now collects each year over and above the property tax revenue the county had been collecting prior to 2022.
Guilford County has been flush with money over the last few years thanks to federal and state pandemic relief funds, favorable sales tax revenues, millions in proceeds from a lawsuit settlement against the national opioid makers and distributors, and the $92 million extra that the county gets each year after not reducing the tax rate in the wake of the 2022 countywide property revaluation.
More money to buy votes from the faithful. Meanwhile, the taxpayer has not choice but to cough it up, or leave the County.
I have a single friend is his 50s. He feels like selling his house and moving away. I had several places to suggest out of the country; my choices too, if it weren’t to late for me.
If you trust these commissioners…a big we shall see. I expect the $92 million to be wasted and not used on tax reduction for the citizens but pet projects, just like the Greensboro city council does.
Big Lie #2B: “Trust me”.
Yes, I would agree the city is flush with funds. Why raise property tax when you can just double the tax value of the property. More money to budget without raising the tax rate. My tax bill more than doubled without increasing the tax rate. Pretty sweet for City of Greensboro, just not so sweet for me.
Oh my oh my. How is Skip gonna fleece the taxpayers for his money pit without a tax increase
The Parasitic Sector is awash with money. And it’s our money.
Need a petition and movement to roll back the tax rates to be revenue neutral from the reassessment. Greensboro is no longer a city of projects needing funding but of funding needing projects. Irresponsible.