It’s been a tough budget negotiation season, with commissioners trying to preserve programs and services they like — while also trimming fat.
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County Manager Chris Coudriet, who has worked on 24 budgets, said he was both excited and anxious about presenting the financial blueprint for the upcoming year, comparing his ambivalence to a "heart catheter on Christmas Eve."
"Every budget is different. Every budget is difficult, but the amount of work that led to this, I feel as good about this as I have in 24 of these prior to that. For me, it's kind of like a heart catheter on Christmas Eve," Coudriet said. "You're excited about what may come, right, what the gifts will be going forward, but there's always the high anxiety that you might get a bad report."
The county revaluation, which updated appraisals from 2021, sent the average property value soaring by around 67% — which means that if the county left its tax rate where it was last year, at 45 cents per $100 in property value, it would see a dramatic increase in revenue while property owners would see major spikes in annual taxes. A 'revenue neutral' tax rate, where the actual property bills would remain the same as last year, would have been somewhere around 29 cents. Coudriet frequently noted during the budget cycle that a true revenue-neutral figure wouldn't account for the significant impacts of inflation — around 25% over four years — that has increased the "cost of doing business" by upward of $70 million dollars.
Based on his conversations with all five commissioners, Coudriet’s budget set the tax rate at 35 cents per hundred dollars of property value — effectively an increase of around $40 per month for the average home value in the county (a whopping $581,000).
Commissioner Rob Zapple thanked Coudriet and his team for their work, but joined fellow Democrat Stephanie Walker and chairman Bill Rivenbark, a Republican, in asking to cut over $8 million from the budget, lowering the tax rate by just over a cent.
“I am requesting that you and our staff do the impossible. Please bring us back a budget that is based on the 33.9 cents per $100 value of assessed property," Zapple said. "I'm also requesting that you reconsider the list of enhancements for each department and the restoration of department funds that were cut in last year's budget cycle."
Republican Commissioner Dane Scalise asked for deeper cuts.
“Do that same thing with 29.1 [cents]," Scalise said. "I know that I'm probably not going to be voting in the majority on this budget. That's all right, you don't always vote in the majority. I think we could have done a little bit better about reducing the number of things that are wants versus needs.”
While Rivenbark responded to Scalise that "no one would ever identify those things [that could be cut]," throughout the budget process, Scalise had suggested possible cuts — including to DEI, non-profits, department enhancements, sheriff’s office funding, and most of all the county’s general administration — as places to save money.
Fellow Republican LeAnn Pierce agreed, noting that Wilmington and the beach towns, including Carolina Beach where she was mayor, were all pursuing tighter budgets. Like Scalise, she's been advocating for an essentially revenue-neutral budget, meaning almost $40 million would need to be cut beyond the request made by Zapple.
"If $39 million were all going to better our school system, maybe I could understand that. But it's not. It's growing the government, and that's just something that I don't agree with," Pierce said.
County staff will bring back a new budget in line with Zapple’s request before the June 2 meeting. State law requires the budget to be approved by the end of the fiscal year, which ends in June.
Disclosure notice: Commissioner Zapple is a member of the WHQR Board of Directors, which has no role in editorial decisions.
