Lenoir County Commissioners Debate Tax Relief, Spending Priorities During FY26-27 Budget Workshop

Lenoir County commissioners reviewed a proposed FY 2026-27 budget on Thursday, May 28th, that would maintain the county’s current property tax rate while funding employee pay adjustments, public safety, school operations, transit needs and several capital priorities.

County Manager Michael James said the proposed budget totals slightly more than $105 million across all funds and maintains the current tax rate of 67.5 cents. The budget represents a 3.6% increase over the previous fiscal year.

“Our total budget for FY27 is a little over $105 million. That’s all funds, general fund and special revenue funds,” James said. “It maintains our current tax rate of 67.5 cent. It is a 3.6% increase over last fiscal year.”

James said the proposed budget implements the county’s pay study, includes the first year of sales tax payouts to volunteer fire departments, limits new budget enhancements and includes a fund balance appropriation of a little over $1 million.

“It does implement our pay study that we completed,” James said. “It does have the year one of our sales tax payouts to volunteer fire departments.”

The general fund totals about $87 million. James said 30% of the general fund is tied to public safety, 23% to human services and 16% to education.

A central question during the workshop was whether the county should keep the tax rate steady to fund current obligations and future capital projects, or reduce the tax burden on residents.

Commissioner J. Mac Daughety said residents are facing pressure from higher living costs and questioned whether some proposed spending should wait.

“At a time where our folks are struggling, with light bills and utility bills and insurance costs and cost of living and gas, isn’t this really a luxury item for us versus a need?” Daughety asked during discussion of a proposed farmers market and commercial kitchen manager position.

Daughety said if the county cannot provide taxpayer relief, it should be cautious about adding new spending.

“If we can’t give taxpayer relief in a time such as we’re in right now, then I don’t see how we can afford to turn around and justify doing this,” Daughety said.

Commissioner Eric Rouse also said the county should consider returning money to taxpayers.

“I think we’ve put a tax burden on the community that has gone above and beyond where it should be,” Rouse said. “I think we’ve got too much money in our fund balance.”

Rouse said he would like to see the county reduce the tax rate and return money to residents.

“Personally, I’d like to see us give back at least a penny off the rate and refund it to the people,” Rouse said. “And that means writing checks. We’ve done it before in the past and I think we should do it again to help give some relief.”

Chair Linda Rouse Sutton said the county must also consider long-term needs and previous delays in maintaining facilities and employee compensation.

“That’s one of the proudest things that I feel we’ve done is we finally got caught up with the employees,” Sutton said. “Plus we started maintaining our buildings because that really needed to be done.”

Commissioner June Cummings said the county is also facing uncertainty from federal and state funding changes.

“We are at an uncertain time as far as our future revenues,” Cummings said. “My feedback is we should move forward because we’ve already made a massive investment that we need to bring to fruition.”

James said the budget attempts to reduce operational costs where possible while prioritizing employee compensation.

“We’ve done our best to try to limit operational expense,” James said. “Not every line item goes down, but when you look at the cumulative total of all those accounts in general fund, they did drop by $700,000 on the operational side.”

The workshop ended without final action. James said staff would bring decision points back to commissioners before the budget public hearing.

“Monday will be here quick, so if there’s something we need to add, please let me know as soon as possible and we’ll get ready for you,” James said.

Commissioners are scheduled to meet again Monday, June 1, at 9 a.m. in the Commissioner’s Chambers on the second floor of the Lenoir County Administration Building, 101 N. Queen St. in Kinston. The board is expected to continue budget discussions ahead of the June 15 meeting.