Negotiation and compromise were the name of the game Tuesday evening in Dobson when the Surry County Board of Commissioners sat down for a final discussion on the county budget for fiscal year 2024-2025.
The final vote on the budget will occur Monday, June 17, but Tuesday the board came to consensus on several items and sent back some items to County Manager Chris Knopf for further review and reconsideration.
Students in the three public school systems in Surry County came away with a victory Tuesday night when the board discussed raising the per-pupil spending amount to a level higher than was recommended by Knopf.
After having held a series of discussions over the past two months with department heads, Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt, Dr. David Shockley of Surry Community College, and the superintendents of the school systems, the board had formed a fair idea of what the needs of the county were versus the amount of revenue coming in to pay for services offered.
As always, there were more requests for funding than there are dollars to go around. Even with a recommended budget topping out over $102 million the board members knew that there would be some tough choices to make and perhaps hurt feelings over decisions made.
In his proposal, County Manager Chris Knopf recommended to the board an increase to per pupil spending of $25. That would have made the amount per pupil for all students living in the county $1,305 and cost the county $252,052 more than the previously budgeted amount.
For Commissioner Larry Johnson, that amount was not good enough and he went to bat for the students of the three systems when he suggested raising that amount.
He goosed the proposed per pupil amount an additional $15, taking it to $1,320. That would translate to an additional $151,215 onto the proposed budget.
The recommendation from Johnson is higher than the requested amount from Mount Airy City Schools, which had requested the $1,305 that Knopf also proposed. However, it is less than the $1,330 that Elkin City Schools had requested and well below the $1,375 that Surry County Schools asked for.
“We’re still in the top 20 to 25% of schools of achievements, but we’re in the lower 10% of all the school systems as far as funding them. I’m hoping we can do $1,320 this year,” Johnson said. “In the past, I’ve looked, we’ve done $20 increases and $40 also, so I’m going to recommend $40 this year per student.”
His suggestion was met with a consensus agreement from his colleagues.
The Public School Forum of North Carolina released its annual Local School Finance Study and found that the top ten counties in the state spend on average $3,924 per pupil where the bottom ten spend on average $946 per pupil. They found large disparities in the value of land, and therefore the tax base, which accounts for the differences in the local contribution to public education.
Across the state, the total average per-pupil expenditure is $12,636 which breaks down to $2,833 in local dollars, $7,596 in state funding, and $2,206 in federal funding. The same report found local dollars invested in students ranges from a high of $8,071 in the Chapel Hill — Carrboro City Schools to as low as $681 in Hoke County Schools.
“North Carolinians living in lower wealth districts continue to face an impossible financial burden to support public education,” said Public School Forum Policy & Research Manager Elizabeth Paul.
“Our 2024 study once again found growing funding disparities between our poorest and wealthiest counties. This is despite the fact that the ten poorest counties tax themselves at 1.7 times the rate as the state’s ten wealthiest counties.”
She said in the same year, the ten poorest counties also taxed themselves “at a much higher rate than the ten wealthiest counties — 75 cents compared to 45 cents, a 30-cent difference. Because of the disparities in real estate wealth, however, the revenue that the poorest counties could generate — even at their higher tax rates — was substantially lower than what the wealthier counties could generate.”
Surry County residents would have sticker-shock at such a property tax rate, which the 2024-2025 proposed budget keeps flat at 55.2 cents; this would be the fourth budget cycle with no change to property tax rates.
Before a ticker-tape parade down Main Street celebrates no tax increases, the board approved a tax rate change that would benefit Elkin City Schools.
Knopf said that Elkin City Schools had requested a 1 cent tax increase to 12.6 cent, which would return them to the same level they were at during the 2022-2023 budget. A one cent tax increase would yield $129,125 of additional revenue over the current rate.
“They have made some progress; I don’t think it’s the progress that some of us would like to see,” Commissioner Bill Goins said. “I could support half that, but I don’ t think I can support a penny.”
“As you well know, most of the leadership down there is new. I am confident in the new leadership, and I am confident that the school board is headed in the right direction. I have been pleasantly pleased and surprised with what they have done,” Harris said.
He sat down with Elkin City Schools leaders and was told their fund balance “was quite low,” in the hundreds of thousands of dollars but the system was taking action to remedy the issue with controlled hiring, belt tightening, and raising tuition for out of county students.
“When we gave them a penny, they asked for two at the time and it was one of the only tax increases I’ve ever voted for, except for fire department taxes. I’m inclined to give them the penny,” he said.
“After looking at a full set of facts, and the capital funding model change hits them for $162,000 or so, I think all things considered I would support the restoration of the one cent.”
“You can see that they are making a bigger effort and I think Dr. (Steven) Hall has got a good start and is doing a good job,” Vice Chair Mark Marion said. With that the board tentatively approved the one cent tax increase for Elkin City Schools.
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