No new taxes? Maybe, in this budget
There could be no new taxes for Guilford County taxpayers this year, after county commissioners asked for a 2008-09 budget proposal with no property tax rate increase in a Tuesday work session.
The zero-tax budget may not be what the board adopts this summer, but it is a step toward two goals most politicians agree on: efficient government and no new taxes.
The marching orders for County Manager David McNeill came at the end of a discussion on hiring consultants for a county efficiency study. Along with the zero-tax increase budget, they asked McNeill to form a panel to advise the county on places to streamline the bureaucracy.
McNeill will also submit his recommended budget to the board on May 15, which he does each year.
Early projections from Michael Halford, Guilford County director of budget management, show the county's property tax rate rising this year if the county services stay at the same rate.
In the 2007-08 budget, taxes for the owner of a $200,000 home went up about $60. Based on Halford's first estimate, that homeowner would pay another $79 on the property tax bill in 2008-09.
"If you want a zero-tax increase budget then say, 'This is what you have to cut out, this is what we will eliminate'," Commissioner Skip Alston said to McNeill.
No particular departments or positions appeared to be in the crosshairs of the board on Tuesday afternoon, though they did talk about consolidating some offices with Greensboro or High Point.
Alston brought up the county's planning department and its purchasing department as ones that could be folded in with city departments.
In a presentation on efficiency consultants to the commissioners, Halford said that Guilford County has one county employee for every 176 residents - the fifth-highest resident-to-employee ratio in the state.
The state average in county governments is 142 residents to one county worker.
Eventually the board decided that a lasting in-house group to study the county's operations might be better than a six-month study from an outside consultant.
The advantage, several commissioners said, is that there could be an ongoing review of the county's processes.
"You start tweaking, and if it’s not working then figure out why and make it change," said Commissioner Paul Gibson.
The board voted 8-0 for the motion. Commissioners Steve Arnold, Linda Shaw and Mike Winstead were absent from Tuesday's work session. That decision was the only official board vote in the meeting.
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