Each year in June, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners has a day of celebration followed by a month of vacation.
This year that day falls on Thursday, June 15, when the county commissioners finally do the most important thing they do all year in any year – adopt a new county budget.
On Wednesday, June 14, the Democratic Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that he was confident that he had enough votes to pass a 2023-2024 budget, though he said he thought it was unlikely that it would be a unanimous vote.
As reported earlier, Republican Guilford County Commissioner James Upchurch, who’s currently running for state auditor, is expected to be a no vote.
Two other Republicans – Commissioners Alan Perdue and Pat Tillman – are expected to vote along with Alston and five other Democrats on the board to approve the budget that is largely the work of Guilford County Manager Mike Halford, who, together with staff, assembled the budget proposal for the commissioners, Halford’s budget will remain largely intact.
The commissioners, of course, as always, have made some important changes to the proposed budget before passing it. For one, the board is expected to give Guilford County Schools millions more – though no one is saying exactly how much more.
Halford’s recommendation was to give the schools no increase in operating funds over last year, however, the commissioners decided that wasn’t acceptable. The Guilford County Board of Education asked for over $100 million in increased funding, which also wasn’t acceptable to the commissioners.
Since the school system had a ridiculous ask this year, it was left to the Board of Commissioners to decide the actual increase for the schools, and that number will be known when the board approves a budget on Thursday, June 15.
