The proposed 2022-2023 budget presented by Greensboro City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba includes the largest property tax increase in history for the City of Greensboro.

The proposed budget maintains the current property tax rate of 66.25 cents per $100 valuation, but because of the revaluation of property by Guilford County, maintaining the current tax rate results in a massive increase in property tax revenue for the city.

The revenue neutral property tax rate for Greensboro is 54.56 cents.  The revenue neutral rate is the rate that would raise the same amount of revenue for the city as if there had been no revaluation.

The $688.7 million budget proposed by Jaiyeoba includes the equivalent of a tax increase of nearly 12 cents.  The last property tax rate increase was in the 2019-2020 budget when the property tax rate was increased from 63.25 to 66.25 a 3-cent tax increase.  The property tax increase proposed by Jaiyeoba is nearly four times higher than that increase in 2019-2020.

When discussing the property revaluation earlier in the year, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that she could not promise that the City Council would reduce the tax rate to the revenue neutral rate, but she said that the property tax rate reduction would be “significant.”

Jaiyeoba’s proposed budget offers no property tax rate reduction and increases the budget of the City of Greensboro from $619.7 passed by the City Council in June 2021 to $688.7 million in Jaiyeoba’s proposed budget.

All nine members of the current City Council will be on the ballot for the Tuesday, July 26 general election and the need to improve public safety is a major campaign issue.  However, despite the $70 million increase in spending proposed by Jaiyeoba, the increase in spending for the Greensboro Police Department is minimal.

The budget does include 20 of the 100 new police cars needed to provide patrol officers with take home cars, which had already been promised by the City Council.  It also offers police officers a 3 percent raise rather than the 2 percent raise for other city employees, but it’s not enough to move the needle.

It is worth noting that unlike past years when the City Council and even the media received copies of the manager’s proposed budget before the presentation, even the City Council was not provided with copies of Jaiyeoba’s proposed budget before or during the meeting.