More than three dozen residents spoke out during what turned into a three-hour public hearing on the upcoming county budget Monday night at Alamance County’s Historic Court House in downtown Graham. Most passionately concentrated on asking commissioners to include more funding for the Alamance-Burlington School System and a continuation of funding for four public libraries in the county.
“Full funding” was the most common tag line for pro-ABSS speakers throughout the evening. County manager Heidi York had proposed transferring about $10 million of the school system’s operations budget to capital programs in an overall county budget.
Her recommendation proposes to add 1.59-cents to the county’s property tax rate of 46.9-cents per $100, bringing the proposed rate for 2025-2026 to 48.49-cents per $100.
York said that “full funding,” or an additional $19 million, for the school system would require a 7.5-cent increase on the property tax rate.
Many speakers overtly called for a higher tax increase, if necessary, to fund their favored areas of the budget, while others talked more generally about the need to “support education.”
York made no recommendation on libraries except in her zero-tax impact budget option, where she included the option of closing libraries in North Park, Graham, and Mebane, leaving only May Memorial Library open. During brief comments at the beginning of the public hearing, York emphasized that the elimination of libraries was not her recommendation, but rather was a contingency option she had presented in the event the board wanted a flat property tax rate.
Commissioners did not take action on the budget, nor had they been expected to do so.
They’ve also scheduled two work sessions on the budget for next Monday and Tuesday morning, both at 9:30 a.m., with Monday to focus on the education portions of the budget and fire district tax rates and Tuesday’s for all other areas of county spending.
A final decision on the budget is expected at the commissioners’ June 16 meeting.
Four of five county commissioners – chairman John Paisley, Jr., Kelly Allen, Ed Priola, and Pam Thompson – were physically present Monday night, while vice chairman Steve Carter was absent.
Check back for a more comprehensive report on the public hearing.
