On Thursday, June 20, the first day of Summer 2024, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners did the most important thing they’ll do all year – the board arrived at and unanimously approved a fiscal budget that will direct nearly all county spending from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2025.
The new budget totals $833.7 million and keeps the county’s property tax rate at the current rate of 73.05 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
That means taxpayers will continue to pay the exorbitantly high taxes that they’ve been paying ever since a 2022 countywide revaluation of all the property in Guilford County produced sky-high values – and the county commissioners failed to adjust the tax rate downward to compensate for the property price increases and hold the budget “revenue-neutral.”
At the June 20 meeting when the budget was adopted, several commissioners pointed out proudly that the board did not raise the tax rate in the new budget, but they didn’t mention that two years ago the revaluation gave the county what’s almost certainly the highest tax revenue increase in the history of Guilford County, and now, each year, the board gets over $90 million in “extra” money to spend.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said he’d overseen many county budgets in the past and every one of them, including the one being adopted that night, had some good and some bad in them.
The budget, he noted, was a compromise between nine commissioners – seven Democrats and two Republicans – and the vote was unanimous.
Alston said the commissioners also worked closely with school officials on this year’s finished product.
“This year’s budget demonstrated great collaboration between the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and the Guilford County Board of Education,” he said.
Alston also said that, by optimizing school bond fund money and working closely with school leaders, the Board of Commissioners was able to balance the budget “while allocating additional funds to school operational funding and school maintenance needs,”
The chairman added, “We will continue to work strategically to establish a long-term funding plan to address our community’s education needs – while ensuring that the county’s essential services are maintained. This year’s budget allows us to do both.”
Guilford County Manager Mike Halford’s proposed budget offered Guilford County Schools $5.87 million in additional money for operations over last year’s budget. Operations money pays for things such as salaries and heating bills.
Halford proposed $2.5 million to be used for school capital needs.
(The Guilford County Board of Education asked for a $55 million increase this year – but every year the schools have an extremely pie in the sky ask. Halford, for instance, said in May that, in order to fund that request, he would have had to completely shut down 30 county departments.)
Alston told the Rhino Times the day before the budget was adopted that he and other commissioners were hoping to somehow get the schools to a funding level that provided the school system $10 million more in operations money than was included in the last fiscal budget. In the end, the board got to that goal of $10 million for school operations.
They did so by using some complex budget gymnastics that frankly some county commissioners didn’t even understand well. But the short version is that the board took the $2.5 million from the capital outlay fund and added that to the $5.87 million which brought the number up to $8.37 million. That still left the commissioners short of the $10 million increase goal. So, the commissioners then took about $1.6 million out of the county’s savings account to get the schools up to a $10 million increase over last year.
The county manager and his budget team found a way for part of the $2 billion available in school bond funds to be used for school capital projects. That involved moving bond-eligible project expenses charged to county cash and lottery funds provided in the 2023-2024 budget to bond funds
The 2024-2025 budget allocates $461 million – about 50 percent of the General Fund and Debt Service Fund – to support Guilford County Schools and Guilford Technical Community College, including funding for operations, capital outlay, and repayment of voter-approved school bonds
In all, the adopted budget provides more than $430 million for the school system’s operational and capital needs, including $270.2 million in operating support for Guilford County Schools, $10 million in capital outlay, $52.1 million to support future debt repayment on the $1.7 billion voter-approved school bond referendum and $99.3 million in school bond debt repayment.
This is a total increase in investment in Guilford County Schools of more than $36 million over the prior budget.
Of this allocation, the Board of Commissioners intends for Guilford County Schools to prioritize $25 million for school maintenance and repair.
Alston said he spent the federal holiday of Juneteenth working from early morning to late at night on last-minute budget issues and he said that many other commissioners and Guilford County staff members did the same. The chairman said the main issues under discussion that day were school funding, non-profit funding and Sheriff’s Department salaries.
Traditionally, after a budget passes each year, the county manager and budget staff go to a watering hole in downtown Greensboro and throw back some beers.
After the budget passed, Budget Director Toy Beeninga said several times that he was going straight home to his wife and seven cats (which he is allergic to, by the way.). The Rhino Times hasn’t been able to discover yet whether he did so or joined his Guilford County compatriots at Natty Green’s or wherever.
All BS. Citizens screwed again. Schools and their votes which were bought are happy. Check out year end grades. Betting minimal improvement if any at all.
How about the improvements to my wife’s life as a music teacher in GCS? The $10M increase this year was less than a 2% increase over last year if I’ve read this correctly.
I’m not defending their choices necessarily, but I would ask that you provide a possible solution with your complaints.
The board will never, ever lower tax rates. What should they do with the money if not spend it on our kids and their caretakers?
This sounds great! We won’t need the sales tax increase after all, since the extra $36 million would have been enough to cover the $20 million they wanted from the tax increase. I suppose they will try again next year, but at least we know they do not need the money now!
Oh, poor Skippy! He had to work on a Federal Holiday, like the taxpayers!
Now that the school system has wrestled another $36,000,000 from taxpayers can we expect an increase in aptitude from students?
Oh well, we can wish, can’t we?
Doing what the state is failing to do is the reason why we will be the shining city atop the hill in the coming decade. We are the best city for education. And we will rewarded mightily we are the most diverse city and we will be rewarded mightily we are the staunchest democrats in the south not just the state and we will be rewarded mightily. Having the best education system in the state will not unrewarded we have and will continue to experience growth because of those things Greensboro was recognized as the 23 best city in the country according to world and news reports and I’m sure it’s because we take pride in providing for our teachers and support staff. Other districts have mold in their building can’t pay teachers holes in their budgets or simply have failing schools Greensboro has none of those things and we still have some of the best athletic programs in the state other cities around the state should take note. And aspire to be like Greensboro and Guilford County
Big city let me be the first to say it, you are full of sh$$
You feeling OK, Big City? Results do not lie. You can pretend forever but Greensboro and Guilford County encourages and promotes division. Race is used in calculating decisions. This is not good for society because it results in mediocre outcomes resulting in resentment by those who are more qualified. My opinion is that Blacks know this but don’t care because they think that they are entitled.
In Guilford County Schools, 39% of elementary students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 39% tested at or above that level for math. Also, 40% of middle school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 31% tested at or above that level for math.
And that’s good news ?
If I read your comment correctly we have a 60% failure rate.
As always, just throw more money at the problem expecting a positive result.
It ain’t working now, and never has @
Where did I put those waders.
With all this money one would hope the test scores and students would benifit. Show me the improvement and I will show you the money. AS always, not going to happen. Just fatten the the salaries and other perks for the comminioners.
The school system is nothing but a political tool for the democrats. They promise to get out the vote for Skip and the other democrats. . .”IF” the commissioners give them the money they requested. See how this works? I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine. Maybe if the school system stopped using money for trips to conferences. . .for a least a year, they might have enough money to fix the issues.
In the beginning of our education system, it made sense that the government would be involved in education for obvious reasons. The system has now morphed into a bloated bureaucracy involving federal money, the Department of Education and self-interest on the part of those who use boards of education as steppingstones to political aspirations. The first order of business should be to eliminate the federal Department of Education. It was founded on a political deal not as a need to improve education. This will save a ton of taxpayer money and will reduce the Washington DC bureaucracy. Secondly, no federal money should go to individual states for education. This will help eliminate federal politicians from getting involved in schools, e.g. Covid mandates. The result should be improved local schools, reduced state education bureaucracy, and independence to focus on students without concern for federal entanglement.
Most of that money is going to educate illegals that should not be here.That only hurts America kids.and as for non profits,there should not be one penny donated from taxpayers money,that is for the people to deside.Any money the government gives to non profits is forced donations and that is illegal, people can donate to whomever they want.The country commissioners have no right to give taxpayers money to any organization without permission