Gibsonville’s board of aldermen voted unanimously Monday night to adopt a $17 million budget with a 4-cent tax increase – 2 cents less than town manager Ben Baxley originally recommended – for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1.
The board’s vote to increase Gibsonville’s municipal property tax rate from 49 to 53 cents per $100 of valuation will generate an additional $473,124 (or $118,281 for every penny). Baxley had recommended increasing the tax rate to 55 cents but revised the impact to 53 cents after hearing input from the aldermen when he unveiled his recommended budget on May 22.
Gibsonville’s adopted budget also includes a 25 percent increase in monthly water rates and a 7 percent increase in sewer rates for the upcoming fiscal year.
Starting July 1, monthly water bills for customers inside the town limits will increase by about $2 (from $8.21 to $10.27 for the first 1,500 gallons of water per month); bills for water customers outside the town limits will pay about $4 more per month (or $20.54 for the first 1,500 gallons). Sewer bills for customers inside Gibsonville’s municipal limits will also increase by about $2 per month (to $22.44 per month for the first 1,500 gallons); those for customers outside town limits will increase by about $3 per month (to $44.88 for the first 1,500 gallons).
Sanitation fees will increase from $18 to $24 per month, as will charges for each additional garbage cart per household.
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The aldermen spent half an hour listening to and discussing Baxley’s revised spending recommendations before voting 5-0 to adopt the budget.
A public hearing on Gibsonville’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year drew no speakers Monday night.
The revised 53-cent municipal tax rate adopted 5-0 Monday night will add $100 to the yearly tax bill for a property valued at $250,000; $200 to the yearly tax bill for a property valued at $500,000; and $280,000 to the tax bill for a property valued at $700,000, based on figures that Baxley provided to the aldermen.
The increase in the town’s property tax rate will be used to pay for employee raises that Gibsonville’s aldermen approved earlier this year, as part of a pay study, in addition to other operating expenses.
A total of $634,517 in fund balance (“rainy-day” savings) will be appropriated to balance the general fund budget of $12.5 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Three new positions will be funded by the budget for 2025-26. The budget calls for one new full-time firefighter ($65,926 including salary and benefits); one new full-time public works technician ($64,357); and a new economic development director ($105,805 in salary and benefits, plus $5,100 for equipment and training).
However, the budget for contracted economic development consulting services will decrease by $8,622 in the upcoming fiscal year, based on the revised budget recommendation that the aldermen heard Monday night.
Gibsonville’s budget for 2025-26 also calls for a 1 percent increase across-the-board for the town’s 75 employees, for a cost of $72,143, including the cost of raises and the fiscal impact associated with benefits such as mandatory employer contributions to the Local Government Employment Retirement System and other benefits. Eligible town employees will also receive 1.5 percent increase in merit pay, at a cost of $64,397 for the upcoming fiscal year, based on the budget that the aldermen adopted Monday night.
The new economic development director, Baxley told the aldermen Monday night, will have twofold focus: enhancing existing efforts to boost downtown development and recruiting business and industry outside of downtown Gibsonville.
The future economic development director will help to develop town-owned properties downtown – with a goal of improving walkability – and promoting future development such as industrial parks.
“Another aspect of that,” Baxley told the aldermen, “will be industry and business recruitment, creating maybe industrial parks. I know there [are] limitations for us because there has been a lot of residential rezoning. Also just plugging into the chamber of commerce and the economic development side of Guilford County and Alamance County, getting involved in those types [of things]. We have someone helping us with the downtown part of it, Chelsea Dickey; another aspect of that is helping department heads with grant writing. That’s got to be part of it. Some of those have been very successful. This would also enhance [that effort].”
Fanelli: Water/sewer costs ‘should be passed on to residents’
Following Baxley’s presentation on his recommended budget, alderwoman Irene Fanelli said she wanted to clarify some of the spending increases for residents who might have been watching the meeting online. “I know that sanitation fees do not currently fund the different types of pickup we have. That means 51.1 percent [of those expenses] has to come from general operating revenues for the town.
“These are numbers that should be passed to the residents because we are the ones who are using the fees,” Fanelli said. “The increase will bring us up to 87.5 percent of the total cost of what we’re expending, which is much closer, not 100 percent. It’s a fairly large increase think it’s good we’re not going all the way to 100 percent on this one.
“The water and sewer fee increases [do cover 100 percent of operating expenses], but they don’t include all the capital items, and those are some big expenses,” Fanelli added. “We’re still not completely breaking even. I put this on my Facebook page; I got three comments on my Facebook page, and I got an email basically from people saying, ‘thank you for putting this information out there so that we can understand why these increases are necessary.’”
Fanelli also asked Gibsonville police chief Ron Parrish why the three police vehicles cost $77,000 each.
“The car is $47,000,” Parrish responded from his seat in the audience at town hall, “but by the time you upfit them with lights, sirens, radars, and videos, that cost goes up. The SUVs the public might go out and buy might be $50,000 to $55,000; we’re getting the same vehicle for about $10,000 less.”
Fanelli conceded, “These are not luxury vehicles; they are SUVs but we have to outfit them before they go on the street. It’s not like you can into a car dealership and say, ‘hey, I need a police vehicle.’”
Fanelli went on to elaborate about why she feels that the tax increase and fee increases included in the town’s budget for 2025-26 are unavoidable.
“These are fees we have to pay for as residents,” the alderwoman said Monday night. “Everyone on this board has to be a resident of this town, so all the increases come to us, as well, but these are things that for a very long that have been badly split, shall we say. I don’t mean that as a negative to anyone in particular, but when the residents are not paying for services they are getting, it’s a tough situation, because when you do that, you’re taking money away from other items, be they capital items or operating items, and there are still other things we need to pay for.
“None of us [likes] fee increases,” Fanelli continued. “The tax rate going from 49 to 53 [cents] is realistically putting it back where it was; it is not an increase over the amount where it was two years ago, and it’s necessary to be able to fund the things that are going on in town. These are not luxury items; these are services that are being provided, and it basically comes down to a choice where either we fund these, or we start cutting services. That’s pretty much where we’re at that, if we don’t fund things in a better way, we’re going to have find ways to save money, and that only comes from cutting services. I’ve not heard from anybody that wants us to start cutting services. We’re not trying to hurt anybody but it has to come from somewhere.”
‘We’ve made some tough decisions’
Mayor pro tem Mark Shepherd responded, “This is my 30th [budget], and this is probably the most unique we’ve had to go through in my tenure. We’ve made some tough decisions; nobody’s happy with what we’ve had to do. We’re starting to subsidize some stuff; we can’t do it anymore. We have to pass it on.”
Alderman Paul Dean also said he’s “good with everything” in the budget for 2025-26.
Crisp: Don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul
Alderman Bryant Crisp also agreed Fanelli’s and Shepherd’s assessment of the town’s financial position.
“As Ms. Fanelli said, we cannot continue to subsidize things and take away from other things,” Crisp said Monday night. “We have to get back to the point where we are not dipping into our savings to pay for things. We should be bringing in enough revenue to pay for our operations, at a minimum, and then start to do other things, so if something random happens that we don’t account for – like what happened with the street repairs [that were] $170,000-$180,000 – we have the money to do it, and we don’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul. No one wants to raise taxes; this is going to be a pinch for everybody. Trust me, I know because I’m going to feel it like everyone else. But we have to get going in a right financial direction so in a year or two, we’re in good financial standing.”
Capital outlay expenses – such as the purchase of three additional police vehicles, at a total cost of $231,000, as well as equipment and financial software purchases – will be covered by appropriated fund balance, which reflects revenue carried over from the current and/or previous fiscal years, based on the budget for the upcoming fiscal year that Gibsonville aldermen voted 5-0 to adopt Monday night. Capital expenses within the water/sewer fund will be covered by appropriated fund balance (such as $25,000 to purchase a walk-behind trencher and $72,000 in fund balance and “retained earnings” in the water/sewer fund) and operating revenue from fees.
