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Haywood County manager presents FY2025–26 recommended budget; property valuation losses and foster care drive pressures
Summary
County staff presented a manager-recommended FY2025–26 general fund budget that holds the tax rate at 55 cents, reduces department requests to just under $112 million, and uses fund balance to smooth recovery from valuation losses tied to a paper mill and storm damage.
Haywood County staff on May 5 presented the manager’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2025–26, proposing a general fund just under $112 million, a property tax rate unchanged at 55 cents per $100 of valuation, and use of fund balance to address revenue shortfalls tied to property valuation losses and storm-related expenses.
“Most of that is in personnel costs,” Brian, the staff presenter, said as he summarized reductions made to department requests. He said departments had requested a little over $117 million in expenditures and the manager’s recommendation trims that to just under $112 million. He added: “A penny for this budget is worth $1,009,930.”
Key numbers presented by staff include a taxable valuation a little over $10.28 billion, a collection rate of 98.18%, and a budget balancing need of $10,961,097. The presenter identified valuation losses totaling about $230.7 million — roughly $191 million tied to the paper mill and about $39 million linked to storm or Hilleen damage — and said those losses erased what otherwise would have been about $252 million of new valuation growth.
Staff proposed a 3% cost-of-living adjustment effective the first full pay period in July and up to 2% merit increases on employee anniversaries; the presenter said those changes cost about $2.3 million. Retirement costs were projected to increase by roughly $436,000. Departments requested 22.5 new positions that would have cost about $2 million if funded, but most were not funded in the recommended plan.
Other items in the recommendation: ambulance fee revenue higher by about $319,000 in “sales and service,” investment earnings of roughly $3.6 million year-to-date (above budget by about $850,000), a county share for foster care of $172,513, a 3% funding increase for the community college ($102,008.52) and a $444,005.75 increase in the county’s allotment to schools for operating. Staff said capital replacements and equipment needs — including 18 vehicle replacements and about $450,000 in HVAC/roof/carpet repairs — were included largely to maintain existing services.
Staff highlighted that the recommended budget relies on fund balance and presented a projection that appropriations from fund balance would increase next year; the presenter said the fund-balance figure “shoots up to $10,900,000” in the next fiscal year. He also outlined continued work to finalize FEMA project workbooks for storm debris reimbursement and said partial FEMA advances that were once faster are now taking 45–60 days in practice.
The manager recommended calling a public hearing on the budget at the board’s next meeting on May 19 at 5:30 p.m., with consideration of adoption scheduled for June 2 at 9 a.m. Board members did not adopt the budget at the May 5 meeting; the presentation and schedule are the manager’s recommendation and the board will hold the public hearing as the next formal step.
No vote on the budget itself was taken at the meeting.
