Thursday’s vote isn’t final, but it provides a good look at which parts of the budget have strong support from commissioners.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mecklenburg County leaders passed a straw vote on the county’s $2.5 billion budget proposal, which could impact everything from schools to property taxes.
The Board of County Commissioners assembled Thursday morning to discuss the proposal and cast an informal vote in favor of moving it forward. It’s not final, but the decision pushes the budget to an expected adoption on Tuesday, June 3.
While the vote was eventually unanimous, it didn’t come without concern. Two commissioners expressed concern with the property tax hike.
“The population of poor people is growing, and we’re certainly not going to be able to do it by taxing our way out of this problem,” Commissioner Arthur Griffin Jr. said.
Commissioner Vilma Leake shared a similar concern, “How do I say to my people, we’re not supporting the taxes because that’s what this said to me?”
The budget proposal includes a small property tax hike, about $36 a year for the average homeowner, and deep cuts to nonprofits, including the near-total elimination of community service grants.
All this as the county works to erase a $29 million deficit left by a sales tax that is not generating as much revenue as expected.
“I don’t know that we anticipate any significant increases in sales tax in fiscal year 2027. Just as we didn’t, we’re not predicting for FY 26. In addition to that, we know that construction has slowed, and so new growth on the property tax side I think is going to be fairly limited,” County Manager Dena Diorio said Thursday. “Over the next few years, we don’t know what the impact is going to be for cuts at the federal level and how those trickle down to the state and how those trickle down to the local level.”
During a lengthy hearing last week, residents and nonprofit leaders urged commissioners to allocate and protect funding for affordable housing, health care for the uninsured, disability services, local history programs, Charlotte’s restaurant industry and much more.
One of the organizations facing cuts is Crisis Assistance Ministry, which assists people with rent.
“Evictions are rising in Mecklenburg County. They’re up 37% just in the past year, and we know they were also on the rise ever since the pandemic, and people are really struggling,” Tovi Martin, the organization’s communications director, said in an interview with WCNC Charlotte.
While they do get funding from other sources, they’re in a precarious position right now.
“We know that the economy is uncertain, and so there are a lot of uncertainty around giving as well,” Martin said. “It’s really critical that the community figures out how to continue supporting critical services like this.”
The initial budget proposal did not include any funding for their financial empowerment program. An amendment to fully fund it was shot down Thursday. Commissioners eventually decided to fund it at 50%, or about $396,000. It would still expire in December.
This is just one of the nonprofits facing cuts.
“We looked at things like performance, utilization of county dollars, department recommendation cost per individual,” Diorio said previously.
Other leaders say it’s about being fiscally responsible, so the county is prepared for whatever happens in the future.
Education is fully funded, however. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools would get the entire amount it requested, including a $28 million increase to support teacher salaries.
The final vote is scheduled for next Tuesday, but based on Thursday’s discussions, there could be more changes before then.
Contact Destiny Richards at [email protected] and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Contact Julie Kay at [email protected] and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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