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.
More largesse and opague actions by the Mandate Mayor and new Manager. July can’t get here soon enough. Other than secret slush fund buyouts of legal Gun Shows how has Mandate Mayor improved the public safety that is one of her only inumerated duties? ….
Like anyone expected different?
So much for transparency and representative government.
Promises, promises, promises. Sure, we knew that there would only be a “minimal” tax increase. First we get socked with a new evaluation, then the commissioners saddle us with a gigantic bond referendum and now the city manager wants another $70 million? Meanwhile good old Uncle Joe has made sure that our gas, food and everything else is inflating at a rate unheard of. We will be in a recession before election day and hopefully, those of us who pay taxes rather than get handouts will put these thieves out of office for good.
When I first heard of this hire for city manager, I quickly did some google work of maybe 5 mins and found out all I needed to know that this was a terrible hire for Greensboro. Anybody else could have done the same. And now we reap the benefits of our glorious city council.. BS people ,,,BS
Remember back in December when I became the first candidate to announce that I would fight for a revenue-neutral tax rate?
Remember when my opponent, Tammi Thurm, voted for a 3 cent tax increase in 2019 extracting nearly $8,000,000 from our community instead of doing the work necessary to balance the budget without an increase? She’s about to do it AGAIN!
Folks, I’ve been telling you this for months. But it’s even worse than I thought. The County has preposed a 13.51 cent increase coupled with the city’s increase of 11.69. That’s an increase of 25.20 per $100 evaluation.
Remember IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR.
Tony Wilkins for Greensboro City Council District 5. Your fiscal hawk.
What did people expect from a city manager like him? There were calls for his firing in his previous position in Charlotte.
This is an outrageous shakedown of the people of Greensboro, from a man who’s paid $6000 a week by the same people – whom he professes to serve. What a nerve.
City manager and this Mayor needs to go away.
$70,000,000. That’s SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS! EXTRA DOLLARS FOR THE NEW ANNUAL BUDGET.
$688,700,000. That’s SIX HUNDRED EIGHTY EIGHT MILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. Can anyone tell me what they’re getting for this princely sum?
Despite assurances from Queen Nancy we are expected to be satisfied with no property tax decrease, much less the expected “SIGNIFICANT “ reduction.
How many property owners will go to the polls on July 26 and show their disdain for this budget which speaks Voltaren about our City Councils commitment to crime reduction in our city? A 3% increase for those that guard our city? RIDICULOUS! That leaves every officer almost 6% behind what they made last year when Uncle Joe’s inflation is added in.
City Council Members, City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba, we can do better, frankly we MUST do better.
Vote on July 26, vote for safer streets, better schools, and lower property tax rates.
Only natural… Highest inflation rate in decades and our City Government deems it appropriate to allow the largest tax increase ever for our city. Well, at least we can stroll the Greenway when we can’t afford a vacation and when we can’t afford gas for our cars, the disreputable state of our streets will not be an issue.
They are f-ng crazy. Counting days to retirement and getting the hell out of here. People need to vote. Vote these people out. I am sure they had him propose this kind of tax rate so the incumbents can come in and lower it and act like they have done something. And as usual the police get screwed. Phasing in cars over a five year period. Big deal. How about hiring some real recruiters or offering benefits comparable to other agencies? Still waiting for your plan for the PD Nancy and Justin. Put it in writing. Also waiting for the hiring of an outside, female, demographic chief from somewhere that our city manager has worked in the past.
look what you’re getting now for your tax dollar. The worst streets in the entire State. How about a tax revolt? A mass tax revolt where nobody pays it. There be so many the city couldn’t do tax foreclosures as it’d clog up the already clogged up useless court system here. I plan to move from this dump of a town.
Good idea, Jack.
Let’s try a simple substitution, $618÷40=15.42, $688÷40=17.2. Did anyone else get a $2.00/hour raise?
And they want to know why greedy landlords and property managers are increasing rents. This is why!!! Stop blaming others for your last decade of terrible policies.
It’s obvious our mayor and city manager have never struggled to put food on the table, or had to choose which bills are the most pressing at the end of the month. I’d lay odds neither has ever bought their clothes from a thrift store, or worn shoes that are falling apart. But by all means, keep those dumb brick crosswalks coming. Who is the idiot that thought that’s a great way to spend our tax money? And make no mistake, it’s OUR money. You are the stewards of our money. You answer to US. And you owe the residents of Greensboro an apology for even entertaining the idea of a property tax increase right now. While I am all for helping our law enforcement, you better start looking for areas to cut the budget. Ask anyone who is middle class or poor for pointers on how to cut a budget. There’s plenty of us to be found these days.