Kinston City Council adopts FY 2025-2026 budget with increase of property taxes
The Kinston City Council adopted its annual budget ordinance for the fiscal year 2025-2026 Tuesday, following a public comment period that highlighted community concerns about property taxes and the allocation of city funds. The approved budget includes an increase of more than $3,000,000 in Ad Valorem tax revenues.
Residents expressed worries that a perceived property tax increase would negatively impact vulnerable populations and local businesses.
Sean P. Keenan, a homeowner and property owner in Kinston, told the council that "An increase in the property taxes will affect way more than just the property owners. It'll cause rent to go up." Keenan stated it would "negatively impact the poorest in our community" as well as "middle class families" and "the elderly on fixed incomes," potentially causing some to "lose their homes."
General Fund for Fiscal Year 2024-2025
General Fund for Fiscal Year 2025-2026
He also argued that higher taxes would deter businesses, saying, "Higher taxes do not attract jobs." Keenan concluded, "The people who are going to be most affected by the raises in taxes are not going to be the wealthy. It's going to be the poor and the least among us."
Quarla Blackwell, another property owner, scrutinized specific budget line items, particularly within the police department. She questioned the allocation of $644,000 "to replace body cams and in car cams," pointing out that "the keyword here is replace. They already have this stuff."
Blackwell, citing her research, contended that these devices typically cost between $200 and $1,000 each, making the total allocation for 60 body cameras and 20 car cameras appear excessive. She also called the $581,000 designated to replace 10 police cars with 144,000 miles "frivolous spending."
Blackwell contrasted these police expenditures with much smaller allocations for community projects, such as $20,000 for Emma Webb and only $35,000 to redo Holloway, a street she said has had no improvements in 40 years. Additionally, she questioned a 5 percent cost of living adjustment for all city employees.
Blackwell urged the council to prioritize homelessness, arguing, "If we got $1,000,000 to offer the police to replace something that they already got, we got $1,000,000 to do something about what really needs to be done."
Mayor Hardy later clarified that the city is "not proposing a tax rate increase." He explained that the proposed budget actually "reduces our tax rate from $0.77 to $0.73 per $100 assessed value." Any increase in residents' tax bills, Mayor Hardy stated, is "the result of Lenoir County's state-mandated property revaluation, which has increased the assessed values of properties in the city of Kinston by 38.65 percent."
The mayor also addressed House Bill 539, co-sponsored by state Rep. Chris Humphrey, which he said "proposes a shift in how local sales tax revenues are distributed, moving money away from rural municipalities like Kinston and towards more populous areas."
Mayor Hardy called this "a very real concern for communities like ours that rely on every dollar to maintain services and invest in our future," and warned that "This bill threatens the local control and economic stability in places that need it most."
Councilmember Suggs spoke about public access to budget information, noting that despite online comments demanding transparency, the budget document had been publicly available for several weeks at City Hall, the Neuse Regional Library, and the city's website.
He encouraged citizens to "take advantage of those opportunities" to be informed, remarking, "If you're going to be mad, be mad and informed at the same time, that's that's my recommendation."
Kinston Police Chief Keith Goyette also clarified that the Kinston Police Department does not control the release of body-worn camera footage, which is instead governed by general statutes and requires a Superior Court judge's approval. Chief Goyette described it as a "very, very difficult process" and stated his plans to disseminate information on social media and present to the Council in the future to educate the public.
The council unanimously approved the budget ordinance.
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