Morrisville officials flag tax-appeal surge and tight budget capacity; staff outlines options and staffing asks

Morrisville — Town staff warned the Town Council on March 10 that a surge in property tax appeals tied to the 2024 revaluation is tightening the town’s near-term budget capacity and forcing difficult trade-offs in the FY27 budget.

Byron (staff) told the council that the town is facing unusually large appealed assessed value from the recent revaluation cycle and that those appeals reduce available property-tax revenue until resolved. He said the town currently projects roughly $5.8 million in new revenue capacity for FY27 after accounting for fund-balance uses, and noted the town has seen appealed assessed values rise to levels staff described as unprecedented during the most recent revaluation cycle.

"As long as they're sitting out there… that's dollars that we are not getting in tax revenue," Byron said when describing why appeals delay or reduce collections for the town.

Staff presented levers the council can use to balance the budget: conservative revenue projections, pursuing sponsorship revenues, shifting bond funds to land-acquisition uses, deferring equipment replacements, using one-time fund balance for limited items, or deferring or cutting programs. Town staff suggested not funding the land-acquisition reserve in FY27 and instead using existing bond funds as one option to free capacity.

Councilmembers pushed for more granular data. Councilmember Garamela and others asked staff to break down appeals by property class (commercial vs. residential) and to show historical trends and the town’s total assessed value so the council could better judge the scale and likely timing of recoveries.

Staff also reviewed multi-year staffing requests tied to town growth and the forthcoming town center: parks and public-works positions to operate and program the town center, police requests including a detective, a civilian community liaison, a traffic-safety officer (grant opportunities were noted), and phased school resource officer support timed to the new high school's opening; fire requested positions to staff additional apparatus in coming years. Staff emphasized these are department asks and that final funding decisions will depend on revenue choices the council makes.

Staff laid out the FY27 calendar: recommended budget presentation April 28, public hearing May 12, and proposed adoption May 26. Council asked staff to return with more stratified tax-appeals data and with budget packages showing trade-offs and revenue impacts.

The council did not take final budget votes at the March 10 meeting; staff will return with refined numbers and recommended packages for council consideration.