County manager presents FY25 budget that holds tax rate, boosts schools and housing

County Manager Chris presented the recommended fiscal 2025 budget to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on May 30, proposing to hold the general tax rate at $0.45 per $100 of assessed value while reallocating and prioritizing funds for education, housing and mental-health services.

Chris said the budget is built around workforce and economic development, community safety and well-being, and sustainable land use and environmental stewardship. He told commissioners the county is in the fourth and final year of revaluation, that inflation since the last revaluation is about 21%, and that federal COVID-recovery funds are sunsetting — context that informed staff's recommendation not to use the revenue-stabilization fund and to limit new recurring spending.

The recommended package would: provide $5,500,000 in new money for the school system to support classroom needs; allocate $1,950,000 to sustain pre-K classrooms; add $2,100,000 to retain county-employed school nurses and school-based mental-health therapists so staffing levels match the end of the current school year on day one of the next school year; and continue a $3,000,000 annual commitment (year three of five) for housing affordability. Chris highlighted a recent philanthropic commitment from the New Hanover Community Endowment of up to $19,000,000 to support local housing projects alongside county and city funds.

On mental-health and substance-use strategy, staff recommended $1,900,000 in general-fund support and identified $3,400,000 in opioid-settlement funds to be used in partnership with the City of Wilmington. The manager also proposed nine new full-time positions (most of which are expected to be partially reimbursed by state or federal sources) and a 3.88% market-adjustment for county employees using the March CPI South regional index; he said employees may face modest health-benefit cost-sharing increases (up to about $28 per month) and noted adjustments to some overtime policies in detention.

The presentation included capital and operating details: no proposed increase in the general property-tax rate, a recommended increase in the stormwater services fee to $6.14 per equivalent residential unit, and preservation of previously committed capital projects. The all-funds recommended budget was summarized at approximately $543 million (modified), with the general fund up roughly 1.6% and an overall reduction from the current year of about 8%.

Chris said the recommendation also includes targeted reductions and reallocated outside-agency funding, including winding down a United Way capacity-building appropriation and reallocating some resources associated with Port City United. Several commissioners voiced concern about the proposed cuts to nonprofit partnerships and potential job losses; Commissioner Barfield said he would not support the recommended budget as presented, arguing the proposed changes would harm employees and partner organizations. Manager Chris responded that the recommendations reflect policy directions he heard from the board and cited limits on using revenue-stabilization funds that would require a supermajority.

The manager asked the board to direct additional budget work sessions and noted staff will post the slide deck and "budget in brief" on the county website. A public hearing and additional board action are scheduled as part of the fiscal-adoption calendar leading up to the June hearing and adoption before June 30.