Craven County adopts $160.9 million budget; board approves routine contracts and amendments

Craven County commissioners on Monday adopted a balanced fiscal year 2025–26 budget totaling $160,927,630 and approved a series of routine items, from legal services for tax foreclosures to budget amendments for facilities and social services.

The unanimous vote on the budget set county tax rates unchanged and adopted the budget ordinance that lays out revenues, fund accounts and fee schedules for the coming year. County officials said the document includes separate funds for fire departments, emergency telephone (911) operations, opioid settlement proceeds, school debt service and capital reserves.

The budget ordinance and subsequent votes were presented by the county manager and finance staff and passed on roll calls that showed all present commissioners in favor. The manager said the document is the culmination of a process that began in December and moved through development and public review in the spring.

In a single meeting the board also approved a number of other county actions: awarding a contract for tax-foreclosure legal services, increasing certain departmental on-call pay rates, authorizing several budget amendments (including a representative-payee fund and convention-center utilities), adopting a resolution specifying authorized uses of opioid-settlement funds, closing a completed capital project and funding the first phase of the Sudan property redevelopment project. The board made multiple reappointments…