New Hanover County Commissioners approve 2026 budget with 30.6 cent tax rate

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Thursday, New Hanover County Commissioners approved the budget for the next fiscal year, with the most significant change being to the county’s tax rate.

The old rate was 45 cents per $100  of value.

Commissioners agreed to cut it, following property re-evaluations earlier this year.

But they didn’t agree on how far to cut it.

Commissioners Stephanie Walker and Rob Zapple had pushed for a 33.9-cent rate.

While Vice-Chair Leann Pierce and Commissioner Dane Scalise wanted to cut further.

“Folks are having a hard time right now, and we need to keep in our households of the citizens of New Hanover County and not increase our taxes,” Pierce said.

The new rate Pierce, Scalise, and Chairman Bill Rivenbark agreed to on Thursday was 30.6 cents.

But they had to remove $36 million in spending from the previous proposal to get there.

“I don’t understand,” Walker said. “I just don’t, it’s just pulling the rug out from under people.”

Scalise said there will be extra revenue compared to last year’s budget, which will go towards several important areas.

“Where we had previously proposed that we were going to have closer to 40 or 50 million dollars in new revenue, this substantially reduces the amount of previously proposed revenue to 11 million and almost all of that new revenue is going to the schools and to the sheriff,” Scalise said.

Some cuts include nearly $1 million used for 6 pre-K classrooms that had been expanded during COVID, $3 million for workforce housing and more.

“This budget will look to firing over 70 people that work for the county, across different departments and throughout,” Zapple said. “So our plan review and inspections department, it’s gonna be a lot harder to do business here in New Hanover County as a result of it.”

Some funding for specific organizations had to be voted on with an even number, as Rivenbark, Walker, and Zapple had to recuse themselves from those votes, due to having personal interests in those organizations.

In some cases, commissioners deadlocked, and frustrations boiled over

“(Scalise) So you voted against giving the appropriation to the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce?”
“(Zapple) There’s a split vote that did not pass!”
“(S) You voted against it, though, right?”
“(Z) I did, but…. so there’s no action taken.”
“(S) I understand but you voted against giving the Chamber of Commerce the appropriation.”
“(Z) There’s no action taken!”
“(S) Well your vote was a nay in favor of supporting it.”
“(Z) Well, that’s your comment.”

The decision was made on Thursday in part because Chairman Bill Rivenbark wanted to propose voting last week, as he needed more time to think about things, after he was initially set to agree to the 33-cent proposal.

Zapple believes the board should have waited again until their next meeting on June 16th to vote.

The total cost of the budget is still being determined, but it is expected to be similar to last year’s, which was more than $500 million.