In line with the county’s commitment to helping empower Successful People to thrive in a Strong Community supported by Quality Government, Guilford County Manager Michael Halford presented his recommended Fiscal Year 2025-2026 (FY2026) budget to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) during their regular meeting on Thursday, May 15.
The County Manager’s recommended total for all budgeted funds, net interfund transfers, is $1.06 Billion, with a General Fund total of $841.7 million. The recommended balanced budget aligns with the BOCC’s OneGuilford initiative, emphasizing targeted enhancements to public safety and core county services, increasing operating support for education, and maintaining ongoing investments in capital projects and required debt service. The Manager’s recommended budget includes maintaining a property tax rate of 73.05 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, thus no tax rate increase.
Highlights of the FY2026 recommended budget include investments in:
Education:
- $499.1 million, is allocated to Guilford County Schools (GCS), charter schools, and Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC).
- $463.7 million, is allocated to Guilford County Schools – an increase of $32 million over the total allocation in FY 2024-2025. This includes $272.7 million to support GCS, including a $2.5 million increase in operating funds to support growth in charter school funding, $87.8 million for existing and planned debt, $50 million for capital systems replacements and renovation projects, and $53.2 million to honor the school capital funding priority for the $2 billion school construction bonds.
- $31.4 million, is allocated to support Guilford Technical Community College, including $19.4 million for operating, an increase of $0.4 million, $1.55 million to support capital needs, and $10.4 million to support existing and future debt.
Enhancing Services:
- An additional $3.1 million, with $1.4 million in county funds, for Health and Human Services - Social Services to add 26 social worker positions to Children Services for assessment and foster care services to provide critical support to families, ensure child safety, and move children to permanency quickly, add eight (8) positions to support Food and Nutrition Services application processing, and add three (3) positions to more quickly process applications to connect children and their families to high quality, affordable child care.
- An additional $2.1 million, with $0.4 million in county funds, to Emergency Services to establish four (4) additional peak demand units which adds 24 positions, including paramedics and EMTs, to improve response times and unit availability.
- Expand support for the Continuum of Care for the County to become the Collaborative Applicant/Lead Agency to continue addressing systemic issues contributing to chronic homelessness through the addition of three (3) new positions.
- An additional $0.6 million for Animal Services for the addition of eight (8) positions to steady operations, expand coverage for animal control, stabilize part-time needs, and expand oversight of the foster rescue program.
- Restores funding to replace life and safety equipment and vehicles for the Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Services.
- Continuing existing county services without a reduction in service levels.
Additional Highlights:
- The recommended total for all budgeted funds net interfund transfers is $1.06 Billion, with a General Fund total of $841.7 million.
- $2.4 million to fund libraries in Gibsonville, Greensboro, High Point, and Jamestown.
- The recommended budget includes a total of 3,066.75 county positions. This is equivalent to about 5.5 positions per 1,000 residents, one of the lowest position-to-resident ratios in the state. $2.4 million will support the county's performance-based merit program consisting of a merit pool equivalent of 3%.
- $2.1 million for Community-Based Organizations (CBO) and Economic Development Organizations (EDO). Of which $1.74 million will support community-based organizations and $565,000 will support economic development organizations.
- Recommends tax rate adjustments for rural fire districts to strengthen operational and fiscal resiliency and provide funding for needed personnel and equipment.
Next Steps:
- The BOCC have scheduled tentative work sessions for Tuesday, June 10, and Thursday, June 12, to hold discussions to help finalize the budget through the adoption of the county budget.
- Residents are invited to attend a public hearing on the county budget on Thursday, June 5, during the Board’s regular meeting.
- The Board of County Commissioners will discuss and consider adopting the budget during the Wednesday, June 18, regular meeting.
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 begins Tuesday, July 1, 2025, and runs through Tuesday, June 30, 2026. The full recommended FY2026 budget will be available on guilfordcountync.gov/countybudget following the County Manager’s presentation.