New Hanover County budget cuts Port City United, approves additional $5.5 million for schools

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — On Monday, New Hanover County Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The budget notably does not include funding for Port City United, an agency with the goal of violence prevention.   

The budget features $122.7 million in total funding for New Hanover County Schools, accounting for approximately 33 percent of the county’s General Fund. That includes an additional $5.5 million in operating funds for New Hanover County Schools, rather than the additional $10.1 million that the school board requested.  New Hanover County Schools is facing a $20 million budget shortfall that could see as many as 279 positions cut, with up to 170 of those positions being cut by June 30. 

Several residents spoke in favor of keeping funding for PCU and the additional $10 million for the school board, but neither were included in the budget. 

Commissioners LeAnn Pierce, Bill Rivenbark, and Dane Scalise voted in favor of the budget.  

“This is a budget that prioritizes the taxpayers,” Scalise said. “It does not increase taxes. We’re going to be one of the only governments in the southeast that is not increasing taxes.”

Commissioners Rob Zapple and Jonathan Barfield voted against the budget. 

“This budget that we recommended today is irresponsible,” Barfield said. “Not fully funding public education is not the right thing to do, it’s irresponsible. Not funding and maintaining PCU in our community is not responsible. Cutting back on the money we are giving to our nonprofits, to me is irresponsible.”  

Barfield added that the budget could have tapped into the New Hanover County Community Endowment to provide additional funding without raising taxes, while Scalise said that the budget will still allow the school board to keep student-facing positions in the district. 

“The budget that we have that includes the school system is the largest amount of money that we’ve ever provided to the school system before, and we’re proud of it, and we’re confident that they’re going to be able to keep the front-facing positions that the students need,” Scalise said. 

Commissioner Barfield disagrees with that sentiment. 

“The deficit is what the deficit is, and the reality is you’re going to have student-facing positions that will be cut and lost because we didn’t give them exactly what they needed,” Barfield said. 

You can read more about the county’s budget here.

How the new budget will play out for the school board will be discussed at the Board of Education’s special meeting on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.