Alamance County manager Heidi York unveiled a proposed 2025-2026 budget Monday night that left both conservative Republican commissioners and some public speakers who spoke in favor of certain areas (primarily the school system and public libraries before she outlined her proposal) unhappy.
See updated, more comprehensive story and related budget stories in this week’s (May 22) print edition and online here: https://alamancenews.com/an-alamance-news-exclusive-comprehensive-county-budget-coverage/
The manager proposed a 2 percent increase in overall spending, at $229.7 million, with a corresponding property tax rate increase of 1.59 cents per $100 valuation, an almost 3.4 percent increase from the current tax rate of 46.9 cents per $100 valuation.
She gave as an example that the increase taxation would translate to $52.80 on a house valued at $265,200. She emphasized that the county’s tax rate, even with the proposed increase, represents a rate “significantly lower” than other counties in the region.
While most county commissioners had generally stated their opposition to a property tax rate increase over the last several meetings, York portrayed much of her proposed budget as holding the line on county spending, despite its overall increase in spending.
York outlined a cut in 3 county positions, including one assistant county manager, explaining to The Alamance News after the meeting that she expects the upcoming retirement of Bruce Walker, one of three current assistant county managers. (Two vacant positions, a fire inspector and one position at DSS, were cut out altogether.) Two of the three new positions she included in the budget are funded outside the general fund, she explained; only an additional assistant county attorney is financed through the general fund appropriations.
York said that 41 percent of the county’s budget goes for personnel expenses.
York said that the cumulative number of additional positions requested was 31, and the total additional costs was $9.8 million, which she had not included; if she did, she told commissioners, it would have required a 6.1-cent increase in property taxes.
She’s proposing cuts to some outside agencies (totaling $615K, including to the airport, the Rescue Squad, Domestic Abuse Services, Crossroads, and economic development incentives and the total removal of funding for the Burlington Animal Shelter); a freeze on annual county longevity payments to workers; and a hiring freeze, including on previously hard-to-fill jailer positions.
Still, York included a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for all county employees and another 2.5 percent for merit pay designations.
She has penciled in $72 million overall in current expense, capital, and debt service payments for bond issues for the Alamance-Burlington school system, below the school system’s requested increases, which had proposed a one-third increase in spending.
There was essentially no increase in current expense funding, according to charts she presented to the commissioners; ABSS had asked for $5.7 million more than last year.
Meanwhile, York also rolled back capital spending projects that she had recommended just last month, including many new vehicles for the sheriff’s office and other county departments, leaving only new ambulances and an emergency management vehicle.
No tax increase options
Acknowledging the board’s desire for no tax increase, York outlined some options that could remove the 1.59-cent property tax increase she’s proposing.
That tax-neutral budget would require a $4.4 million cut in new spending, closing the county’s libraries other than May Memorial (-$584K to close Graham, -$574K to close Mebane, and -$176K to close North Park), laying off 30 county workers (-$648K), and reducing or eliminating staff compensation increases (-$2.4 million).
Commissioner reactions
Commissioner Kelly Allen questioned the continued annual county contribution for the Burlington-Alamance Airport Authority, an expenditure she said should be phased out; Allen said they should be self-supporting by now. She also emphasized that the airport got $20 million from the state last year.
Vice chairman Steve Carter summarized the manager’s proposed budget and the tax-neutral option as “bleak.” Carter said the public should come out for the budget hearing to make their preferences known.
Commissioner Ed Priola, who recently pressed for eliminating or at least consolidating some of the funding for the county’s library system, renewed his suggestion that such funding should be cut, calling the current number of employees overstaffed and the funding “bloated.”
Meanwhile, commissioner Pam Thompson expressed concerns about cutbacks in spending, especially for the school system.
Public Hearing and Budget Work Sessions
The commissioners will conduct a public hearing on the budget on June 2 at the Alamance County Historic Court House.
Work sessions on the budget will be held on Monday and Tuesday, June 9 and 10, in the auditorium at the Alamance Agricultural Building auditorium, both at 9:30 a.m. The first will concentrate on education spending and fire district tax increase requests. The second will be for other county departments.
The commissioners will be asked to finalize the 2025-2026 budget at their June 16 meeting.
For a more detailed description of the county manager’s budget, see this week’s (May 22) edition of The Alamance News.
