Burke board adopts 2025-26 budget

Burke County’s budget for fiscal year 2025-26 — complete with a modest property tax cut — is a done deal after the board of commissioners voted unanimously to accept it at Monday night’s meeting.

The 4-0 vote — commission vice chair Phil Smith could not attend — came after County Manager Brian Epley’s presentation and a public hearing, during which no one spoke.

Commissioner Brian Barrier said the lack of opposition was a testament to the fiscal responsibility Epley and the county staff displayed in formulating the budget.

“I really just wanted to thank Brian and Margaret (county finance officer Margaret Pierce) and Kay (clerk to the board Kay Draughn) and all of our staff for the remarkable work on the budget,” Barrier said.

“… It’s very fiscally conservative and very responsible, and maybe just not having any folks here to speak out against anything in the budget, that’s a great sign. Thank you, folks, so much for what you do.”

The budget provides a half-cent reduction in property taxes, lowering the previous rate of 56 cents per $100 of value to 55.5 cents. That’s a savings of $10 per year on a $200,000 piece of property.

It wasn’t an enormous cut, but it was significant in that it came during a year when the county’s tax base growth did not keep up with the rate of inflation. It was the second reduction in the last three years.

Amid economic uncertainty, Epley said it was important for the county not to overextend.

“As I mentioned back last month, there’s not a new program, there’s not a new FTE (full-time employee), there’s not a new idea in this year’s budget,” he said. “It’s really about incremental and marginal gains and trying to do everything we’re currently responsible for better.”

Epley pointed out this year’s fiscal plan allows the board to maintain five key development areas it identified as part of an overall strategic plan implemented three years ago, including priorities like economic growth, public safety and wellbeing, and fiscal stewardship.

It also lets the commissioners continue to pursue their 2023 capital improvement plan, which aims to replace or renovate a number of county buildings that are approaching the end of their service lives.

“There’s a real point of emphasis from the board of commissioners on the county’s business model being fiscal fiduciaries, being very efficient, and (having) a very clear emphasis on economic development,” Epley said. “I think that each of these directly impacted our budget and were focused on as we were drafting it.”

The budget includes increases in funding for both education (1.5%) and public safety (3%), as well as a 2.25 cost-of-living adjustment for county employees.

Burke has now increased its education funding by 25% over the last three years, and that has paid dividends in the classroom, Epley told the board.

“That’s moved us up about 13 spots in our local education funding rank (among North Carolina’s 100 counties),” Epley said. “That has provided Burke County Schools to be the only school district in our region that has lowered the student-teacher ratio in classrooms.”

Epley told the board the staff has engineered $8.5 million in budget flexibility over the last three years. He added that amount has been reinvested into things like human capital and making Burke County a desirable place to work — as Epley terms it, an “employer of choice.”

One of the factors that led to the savings was a massive increase in investment earnings. Burke went from $64,000 in 2022 to an estimated $3.4 million this year.

While taxes will be slightly lower, costs for some services the county provides will go up over last year.

The municipal solid waste household fee will increase by $4, to $94 per year. Basic water service will go from $25 to $30 per month, as will basic sewer service fees. Tap and meter fees will also rise, as will some Environmental Health inspection fees.

Epley said the increases reflect the fact the county’s cost of doing business is rising.

“Water and sewer is based on cost,” he said. “When you look at labor, the cost of a meter, the cost of a tap, especially for some of the ¾-inch stuff, we’re almost losing money every time we sign up a new customer.”

You can view the budget in its entirety at: burkenc.org/DocumentCenter/View/4370/FY-25-26-Recommended-Budget-PDF.