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Resident tells commissioners revaluation and fund-balance use will raise homeowners' taxes
Summary
During the public hearing, resident Ronnie Nicholson said revaluation and the budget's fund-balance appropriations would shift tax burdens onto homeowners and criticized prior school-funding decisions. He cited a $57.4 million proposed figure and questioned various line items.
At the June 29 public hearing on the FY2026–27 budget, resident Ronnie Nicholson questioned several elements of the proposed ordinance and warned the revaluation and fund-balance use would increase property owners' tax bills.
Nicholson said "this is the largest proposed budget in the history of Scotland County with an amount of $57,413,000, which is almost $7 million more than the 2022-2024 budget," and raised three specific questions: the county's reported $2.34 million property increase over last year, the distributional effects of tangible personal property revaluation that he said would favor businesses, and the appropriateness of using fund balance (he cited $1.24 million) to reduce the tax rate.
He also criticized what he described as past board actions affecting school funding, saying "this Board has gone to great lengths to abolish the school floor in order to lower property taxes when in fact, even with a declining population it appears that school funding has increased, almost a million dollars." Chairman Frizzell thanked him for speaking; no other public commenters addressed the board at the hearing.
The manager and commissioners discussed the points during budget deliberations and staff later presented a revised budget figure in the $56.4 million range and explained state-law constraints on implementing a lower tax rate.
