The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is giving county residents a golden opportunity to speak their minds on how their tax dollars should be spent – or not spent – in the coming fiscal year.

On Thursday, June 5, the board will hold its annual public hearing on the county budget – the one time each year when the microphones are open, the timer is set, and anyone with an opinion on the budget can head up to the podium and let the commissioners know what they think about the proposed spending plan for 2025-2026.

This hearing is part of the county’s official budget calendar, which was finalized by the board earlier this year and has included a handful of work sessions leading up to a final budget vote scheduled for Thursday, June 19.

County Manager Mike Halford unveiled his recommended budget at a meeting in mid-May and people have had time to read it online. Now the public gets its turn to offer input – and, if history is any indication, people will have a lot to say.

At the hearing, you can expect to hear passionate pleas for more school funding, requests for money for nonprofits, calls for new recreation centers, library expansions, mental health programs, and perhaps even a call for a few more pickleball courts – which have somehow become a staple of modern budget hearings in Guilford County.

There’s one thing you’ve rarely heard in the past: requests for a tax cut.  That may change this year since property tax bills have skyrocketed in recent years and are expected to do so again next year.

Ever since the 2022 countywide property revaluation – which came at the peak of the real estate boom – taxpayers have been dealing with sharply higher tax bills. That’s because the current Board of Commissioners, led by a Democratic majority, opted not to lower the property tax rate to a revenue-neutral level after that revaluation.

The result was the equivalent of a 14-cent tax increase and an extra $90 million-plus in annual revenue for the county – thanks to property owners who didn’t necessarily realize they’d been handed the biggest local tax hike in memory until they got their bills in July of that year. The county’s tax rate stayed the same but the bills for most people increased enormously.

Contrast that with the last time property values were revalued and a Republican-led board was in charge: That board actually lowered the tax rate to offset the increase in assessed values, keeping most people’s tax bills the same.

In 2022, that didn’t happen – and plenty of residents are still sore about it and they are also more broke because of it.

So, while most speakers at the June 5 hearing will likely come with hands out, asking for more funding for their favored cause or organization, it wouldn’t be a surprise if some also show up this year asking for a little relief in the form of a lower tax rate.

Of course, when it’s all said and done, it’s the nine county commissioners who have the final say.

Halford and his budget team get to present their case, the public gets to weigh in, and the commissioners get to decide where the money goes – and whether Guilford County taxpayers will be paying more, less, or exactly the same as last year. The good news is that this year, the tax rate will not change and the property tax bills should remain the same.

If the recent history of the public hearing is any guide, not everyone’s going to walk away happy.

But at least, as the saying goes, everyone gets their say.

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