County Seeks Input on Proposed Budget

County Manager Mandy Stone provided an overview of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Tuesday, May 15, to the Board of Commissioners (See: budget message and an in-depth presentation).

The County Manager’s original prepared budget included a one-cent decrease in the property tax rate to 52.9 cents through realized efficiencies while holding current services whole and advancing the strategic priorities of the Board of Commissioners. However, education requests made to the Board of Commissioners on May 8, 2018, totaled approximately $4 million¹.

In response to these education requests, the proposed budget addresses the majority of these, while holding the current tax rate flat at 53.9 cents. Highlights of the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2019 include:

• The proposed General Fund budget is $318,720,851.
• A 3.6 percent decrease in the general budget, down more than $12 million from the current fiscal year.
• The proposed property tax rate of 53.9 cents is the current rate.
• Funds most of the education requests.

As part of our commitment to transparency, the following materials concerning the proposed budget are available for the public to review:

• Budget message.
• County Manager’s budget presentation.
• Proposed capital plan.
• Line item proposed operating budget.
• Citizens’ guide to the budget.
• Budget framework.
• Interactive budget explorer.

With the proposed budget presented, the Board of Commissioners and County Staff want to hear from you about how your tax dollars will be spent. We offer the following ways for the public to provide feedback:

• Email us at: LetsTalk@BuncombeCounty.org or Budget@BuncombeCounty.org.
• Call us via the Let’s Talk hotline at (828) 250-4066.
• Attend the public comment session the budget at the Commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, June 5, at 5 p.m. at 200 College St., Room 326.

Commissioners are set to vote on the Fiscal Year 2019 budget on Tuesday, June 19.

¹Education requests received totaled $4.7M but state statute mandates that we apportion the public school requests by ADM (Average Daily Membership) share so the adjusted request was $4,025,557. These requests were further adjusted by $616,154 to stay within County policy for undesignated fund balance of no less than 15 percent. We also moved $3,044,274 of the requested increases that are dependent on state budget action to contingency while we wait for final state numbers.