Lenoir County's 2021-2022 budget maintains existing tax rate
Lenoir County Manager Michael James released the fiscal year 2021-2022 recommended operating and capital budget for Lenoir County. The County Commissioners voted unanimously at the last meeting to approve the proposed budget. The next fiscal year’s budget maintains the existing tax rate of $0.845 per $100 of valuation.
“Maintaining the current tax rate allows us to invest in meeting the specific areas of our strategic plan and be prepared for expenses due to unexpected events,” said County Commissioner June Cummings. “ We are Lenoir County Strong and will stay that way with strong fiscal planning and investment in our economy.”
Because of the impacts to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board expected a reduction in Sales Tax, but the county saw an increase in Sales Tax revenues of 5.5% over 2019.
“It was important to not have any tax increase in the budget,” said County Commissioner J. Mac Daughety. “We feel that we’re pretty much at a maximum in terms of the tax burden that we have right now.”
There were staffing changes highlighted in the budget including a new planning director as Lenoir County does not have a professional planner on staff. Five positions were defunded in the Department of Social Services and the recommendation is that they not be funded in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
“County Manager Michael James has done an excellent job of coordinating and guiding the development of the budget and I am fully in support of it,” said Cummings.
It was noted in the budget that the County and the City of Kinston are in negotiations with Lenoir County SPCA on a revised contract. The current budget amount is $144,000.
“This year we had to catch up with the new pay study, and do some adjustments for our first responders and our county employees in terms of salary and we were able to do that,” said Daughety.
The recommended budget increases the line item of the Board of Commissioners’ salary from $149,903 in the revised 2020-2021 budget to $156,921 for 2021-2022.
“The increase is a result of the pay adjustment plan we implemented for county employees,” said County Commissioner Eric Rouse. “The increase is how it affected the salary for the administrative assistant to the county manager.”
“We’re able to give our first responders a raise, that’s a key thing,” said Daughety. “Secondly we’re able to invest strategically in things that will help the county be more efficient and be more businesslike moving forward, and third we don’t raise property taxes.”
