Davidson County board re-adopts FY2026–27 budget after state reappraisal moratorium

Davidson County commissioners on June 22 voted to revise the county’s fiscal 2026–27 budget after the North Carolina legislature enacted a property reappraisal moratorium (SB889).

County staff told the board the moratorium requires the county to use last year’s property valuations when setting tax rates. County manager and budget staff presented an ordinance with the same aggregate dollar amounts as the adopted budget but recalculated to match prior-year valuation and rates. The board first voted to suspend procedural rules to reconsider the budget, then voted to reject the version of the FY2026–27 budget adopted June 8, and finally adopted the amended ordinance.

Under the adopted amendment, the general tax rate is set at 54 cents per $100 of valuation and the school supplement returns to 12 cents per $100; fire district rates were adjusted to generate previously agreed revenue allocations (about $19.8 million in aggregate for the fire districts). The ordinance included an add-on for the Davidson County Rescue Squad and Thomasville Rescue Squad, and staff said dollar totals remain unchanged.

County legal and finance staff advised the board that state law required the technical corrections and that the revised ordinance preserves the same revenue and spending plan previously discussed. Commissioners voted the motions sequentially — to suspend the rule governing reconsideration, to reconsider the prior vote, to reject the prior budget, and to adopt the amended budget — with each motion receiving a second and passage by voice vote.

The board directed staff to file the amended ordinance and to publish the updated tax-rate schedule for property owners. County officials said the change was procedural, not a policy reset: the revised ordinance preserves the policy decisions reached in earlier deliberations but reflects the statutory change forced by the reappraisal moratorium.