Guilford County commissioners have spent much of the last six years increasing county budgets, expanding programs and finding ways to bring in more tax revenue.
However, if North Carolina voters approve a proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the Democratic-controlled Guilford County Board of Commissioners could find that its ability to keep increasing property tax collections is suddenly facing some serious restrictions.
The amendment would require the North Carolina General Assembly to enact laws limiting how much local governments can increase the total amount of property taxes they collect. Just how much those increases would be limited is something voters won’t know when they cast their ballots.
That’s because the amendment doesn’t specify a percentage or a dollar amount. Instead, it leaves the details up to state legislators – who would have to agree on the limits and any exceptions after the amendment passes.
The actual ballot language reads: “Constitutional amendment requiring limits on property tax increases by local governments.”
It’s an unusual proposition because voters are essentially being asked to approve the idea of property tax limits without knowing exactly what those limits will be.
However, for Guilford County taxpayers who’ve watched the county’s budget climb year after year, the possibility of having some outside restrictions placed on the Board of Commissioners’ ability to raise property tax revenue could mean significant relief.
In June 2024, the Rhino Times examined the dramatic difference in budget growth between the Republican-controlled Guilford County Board of Commissioners that governed from December 2012 to December 2020 and the Democratic-controlled board that took over afterward.
The results were striking: During eight years of Republican control, the county’s annual General Fund budget increased from about $587.5 million to $634.6 million – an increase of roughly $47 million.
During the next four years, Democrats increased the annual budget by nearly $200 million.
And the spending didn’t stop there.
When the Democratic-controlled board adopted its fiscal 2024-2025 budget in June 2024, the final number came to $833.7 million.
The following year, commissioners adopted a fiscal 2025-2026 budget of $847.3 million.
Then, this past June, the board adopted a fiscal 2026-2027 General Fund budget of $889.2 million.
That means the county’s annual General Fund budget has grown by approximately $254.6 million since Democrats took control in December 2020.
Put another way, the board has increased the annual budget by about 40 percent in six years. The increase of $254.6 million is more than five times the increase in the annual budget during the previous eight years of Republican control.
Of course, the county has faced inflation, population growth, rising labor costs and major school construction commitments during that period. However, the comparison shows just how dramatically Guilford County government’s spending plans have expanded under the current board.
And the county hasn’t just been increasing its budget – its also been collecting substantially more in property taxes.
In 2022, Guilford County conducted a countywide property revaluation that dramatically increased taxable property values.
When property values increase substantially, county commissioners can lower the tax rate to offset those increases and keep the revaluation roughly revenue-neutral.
That’s what Republican commissioners did following the previous revaluation.
The Democratic-controlled board took a different approach in 2022.
Commissioners left the tax rate at 73.05 cents per $100 of assessed property value rather than lowering it to the revenue-neutral rate of approximately 59.54 cents. That decision generated an estimated $92 million in additional annual property tax revenue. There was no increase in the published tax rate, but there was certainly a major increase in the amount of money the county collected.
And this year, county commissioners raised the tax rate itself.
After the General Assembly passed legislation preventing Guilford County from using its newly revalued 2026 property values for the current budget, the commissioners adopted a rate of 78.95 cents per $100 of assessed value.
That’s an increase of 5.9 cents over the previous rate.
County budget documents indicate the increase is expected to generate about $44.3 million in additional annual revenue.
So, in the span of several years, Guilford County commissioners have approved two major increases in property tax revenue while continuing to expand the county budget.
At the same time, the county’s financial reserves have been moving in the opposite direction.
As the Rhino Times reported in July, Guilford County’s unassigned General Fund balance – the money that the county can most readily use to address unexpected expenses or financial emergencies – has fallen dramatically.
At the end of fiscal 2023, the county had approximately $102.1 million in unassigned reserves.
By the end of fiscal 2024, that figure had dropped to about $70.6 million.
And by the end of fiscal 2025, it had fallen to approximately $58.2 million.
That’s a decline of about $44 million in just two years.
Guilford County’s own financial policy calls for the unassigned General Fund balance to remain at or above 8 percent of the subsequent year’s adopted budget. The most recent audited figure put the county’s reserve at approximately 7 percent – below its own minimum.
If the $58.2 million figure were measured against the county’s newly adopted $889.2 million General Fund budget, it would represent only about 6.5 percent. That isn’t an official audited reserve percentage for the current fiscal year, but it illustrates the problem: As county budgets get larger, the county needs more money in reserve just to maintain the same percentage.
Eight percent of the current General Fund budget is approximately $71.1 million – or about $13 million more than the county’s last reported unassigned reserve.
Despite the large increases in county revenue in recent years, the board has allowed its financial cushion to shrink.
Guilford County Board of Commissioners Chairman Skip Alston and other Democratic commissioners have argued that increasing budgets are necessary to pay for schools, public safety, employee compensation, county facilities and the infrastructure needed to support expected growth.
Commissioners have also pointed to inflation and the loss of federal and state funding as financial pressures.
Those are legitimate expenses facing county government.
But the question for taxpayers is whether every additional dollar of spending is necessary – and whether the board has shown sufficient restraint when it comes to using the money it already collects.
That’s where the proposed constitutional amendment could become particularly important.
If voters approve the amendment, the General Assembly would be constitutionally required to establish limits on how much local governments can increase their property tax levies.
A property tax levy is the total amount collected in property taxes. A limit on that amount is different from a restriction on the property tax rate itself.
That distinction matters because a county can collect substantially more in property taxes without raising the rate, as Guilford County demonstrated following the 2022 revaluation.
A levy limit could restrict that type of revenue increase, depending on how the General Assembly eventually writes the law.
For example, if legislators established a hypothetical 3 percent annual limit on property tax levy increases, a county collecting $400 million in property taxes could ordinarily increase that amount by only $12 million the following year, subject to whatever exceptions lawmakers provided.
The proposed amendment doesn’t establish a 3 percent limit, however, or any other specific number.
It also allows the General Assembly to create exceptions. Those might involve new construction, population growth, emergencies or other circumstances, although none of those particular exceptions is guaranteed by the amendment.
And the amendment wouldn’t directly prevent Guilford County commissioners from increasing spending. The board could still increase budgets using other available revenue sources, and it could seek additional revenue through other legally permitted means. However, because property taxes are such an important source of county funding, restrictions on annual growth in that revenue could make it substantially harder for commissioners to continue increasing budgets at the pace they have in recent years.
Opponents of the amendment argue that property tax limits could make it more difficult for counties to pay for schools, emergency services and other essential government functions, particularly as populations grow and costs increase.
Supporters argue that limits would provide taxpayers with protection against escalating property tax burdens and force local governments to exercise greater fiscal restraint.
The General Assembly would still have to settle the difficult questions of how restrictive the limits should be and what exceptions should apply. For Guilford County, the stakes could be considerable.
The county has increased its annual General Fund budget by more than a quarter-billion dollars since Democrats took control, approved major increases in property tax revenue and watched its unassigned financial reserves fall below the minimum level established in its own policy. Whether voters approve the amendment or not, those budget figures aren’t going away.
However, if the amendment passes and state legislators eventually establish meaningful limits on property tax increases, Guilford County commissioners may find that the annual practice of expanding the budget and looking to taxpayers for more money has become considerably more difficult.
