Gibsonville’s board of aldermen voted 5-0 Monday to night to adopt the town’s $19.1 million budget that includes no increase in the existing municipal property tax rate of 53 cents per $100 of valuation for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The budget also makes no allowance in the tax rate for this year’s revaluation of property on the Guilford County side of town.
The budget that the alderman voted to adopt Monday night includes a 5 percent increase across-the-board increase in the town’s water and sewer rates.
Water bills for customers inside the town limits will increase by 34 cents per month, from $6.84 to $7.18 per 1,000 gallons. Sewer bills for in-town customers will increase by 75 cents per month, from $14.96 to $15.71 per 1,000 gallons, for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Water rates for customers outside the city limits, which are double those for in-town customers, will increase by 68 cents per month, from $14.96 to $15.71 per 1,000 gallons. Monthly sewer bills for out-of-town customers will increase by $1.50 per month, from $29.92 to $31.42 per 1,000 gallons, under the newly-adopted budget.
The additional revenue generated by the higher water and sewer rates will cover the 5 percent increase in Gibsonville’s charges for water purchased from (and wastewater treated by) the city of Burlington, town manager Ben Baxley said when he presented his proposed budget last month.
Sanitation fees will remain unchanged from the current rate of $24 per month, per cart.
All existing town employees will receive a 2 percent raise, at an estimated total cost of $158,784, plus merit raises of up to 3 percent for qualified employees, which Baxley estimates will cost $141,605 in 2026-27.
In addition to raises for town employees, the new budget includes an increase in the annual stipends for Gibsonville’s governing board.
Mayor Bryant Crisp will receive an annual raise of $1,900, from $4,100 to $6,000 per year; mayor pro tem Mark Shepherd will receive a raise of $1,800, from $3,700 to $5,500 per year. The stipend for the four aldermen will increase by $1,600, from $3,400 to $5,000 each per year, under Gibsonville’s new budget.
In a brief phone interview with The Alamance News, Baxley said the mayor and aldermen had directed him to include the increase in the stipend in his budget for 2026-27, adding, “I don’t specifically remember the date I was asked.”
Baxley said that the stipend levels were based on a 2025 study of average salaries conducted by the N.C. League of Municipalities (NCLM), which looked at governing board stipends based on their populations.
Gibsonville had approximately 9,876 residents as of July 2025, according to the latest Census estimates.
The average annual stipend for mayors of municipalities with populations totaling between 5,000 and 9,999 residents ranged from a low of $3,150 (Long View, in Catawba and Burke counties) to a high of $15,401 (Fletcher, in Henderson County), based on a copy of the study that Baxley provided to the newspaper Wednesday. The average annual stipend for mayors pro tem in municipalities with 5,000 to 9,999 residents ranged from a low of $2,700 (Archer Lodge, in Johnston County) to a high of $10,700 (Butner, in Granville County).
The average annual stipend for governing board members in municipalities with 5,000 to 9,999 residents ranged from a low of $2,400 (Archer Lodge) to a high of $9,500 (Butner) in 2025, according to the NCLM study.
