Kinston approves $116.3 million budget with 4-cent tax rate reduction

The Kinston City Council approved the city’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget Tuesday, setting the property tax rate at 69 cents per $100 of valuation.

The adopted rate is a 4-cent reduction from the current rate. The total budget is $116,310,700 after internal service funds are removed.

Interim City Manager Ralph Clark said the budget was revised after a June 2 public hearing where residents and council members raised concerns about the proposed spending plan.

“We’ve held a public hearing on June 2. We’ve heard citizen comments and a number of comments were made by the citizens, along with you as a council,” Clark said. “These comments were all considered.”

The final budget adds back several items, including $42,000 for parks and recreation to replace light poles at Barnett Park, $17,000 for Mock Gym, $25,000 for organizational support, $8,500 for a fire department contract, $55,800 for street resurfacing, and additional funding for mayor and council travel and training.

Clark said the budget does not recommend increases to water, sewer, electricity, stormwater or solid waste fees.

“Again, I will remind you that there are no changes to the water, sewer, electricity, stormwater, solid waste or the garbage collection fees,” Clark said.

Clark said the city expects electric rate increases from its supplier during the fiscal year, with one anticipated in October and another next spring. He said the city does not expect to increase electric rates for customers at this time.

“At this point, without looking at what the absolute rate is, we do not see any reason to increase the rates to cover these two increases in charges to us,” Clark said.

Clark also said a previously discussed water rate increase is expected to be delayed, though he cautioned that pending regulations could affect future decisions.

“On the water side, there was a proposed rate increase next year, and it appears with some of the changes we made this year, we are able to delay this increase by at least a couple of years,” Clark said.

Several council members said the revised budget reflected an effort to respond to public concerns.

Councilman Antonio Hardy said he was pleased funding was restored for organizational support and parks and recreation.

“I’m glad that the council came together after our last public hearing about the budget,” Hardy said. “There were some concerns, my personal concerns, about the organizational support.”

Hardy said community organizations and youth programming remain important.

“We do hear our citizens speak about their needs in the community, and we are doing everything in our power to try to help out,” Hardy said. “The pouring back into our community and our youth is something that we need to look forward to and supporting.”

Councilman Les Lipford said the council was not able to reduce the rate as much as some had hoped, but said the 4-cent reduction showed an effort to respond.

“It was hard to reach that 8 cent that we thought we could reach, but 4 cents just to show you that we are trying to do the things that we need to do,” Lipford said.

Mayor Kareem Moore said the city was working to move forward after last year’s tax increase.

“I know we can’t keep apologizing for the past, but we’re trying to go forward and we’re going to do the best we can going forward,” Moore said. “Hopefully this will bring some relief to our citizens from last year’s big tax hike.”

The budget passed without opposition among council members present.