By ELENA MARSH
Staff Writer
Moore County taxpayers may see a slightly lower property tax rate for the upcoming year but a slightly higher tax for fire protection, under a guideline the Board of Commissioners has formulated with its staff.
Early budget discussions have begun, with the county’s first review of the year held this past week. County Manager Wayne Vest laid out a rough sketch for the upcoming fiscal year budget, which begins July 1.
Commissioners are looking at a half-cent reduction in the property tax rate but an equal increase in the fund that covers fire stations throughout the county.
For the 2026-27 fiscal year, the county is set to operate on a 0.29 cent rate per $100 property value, with a net budget of $155 million.
The county this past year lowered the tax rate from 0.31 cents to 0.295 cents per $100 property value. It did that principally by setting aside $3.6 million in surplus revenue from the previous budget year.
At a 3 percent growth projection, assuming the county collects at its historical 99 percent rate, the county predicts it will generate $2.36 million for each cent of the tax rate. That’s up from a $2.25 million rate for each penny last year.
“ We based on 3 percent growth,” said Commissioners Chairman Nick Picerno. “If you look at last year we still had a penny come out of the general tax rate. We’re leaving 29 and a half cents last year that still put us close to $8.1 million. We had a surplus. So if you grow 3 percent, that was certainly covered and we can match that back into the fire (service), which we were trying (to do).
“Our goal was to have no tax increase on our citizens, none, so that the bill will not go up. This cost of living is high enough; we don’t need to be extracting more special, large fund balances.”
This year, the county plans to raise the fire protection fund for the first time since 2024, taking the rate from 0.0875 cents to 0.0925 cents.
Vest told commissioners that he met with the Fire Chiefs Association, which is composed of the 15 chiefs in the area, to go over the increase and how it can serve the needs of the departments.
“ For today’s conversation, just to let you know again, at the 0.0925 cent rate, the half penny increase revenue picture looks like $7.5 million,” said Vest.
“The expenditure allocations across operations and capital total $7,804,652 million. What we were thinking about is, with the half a penny increase, we might generate enough additional revenue, which will be about $400,000. But what we’re finding right now is that, even with the half penny, we’re still about $300,000 short of revenue, so we’re working through that.”
The Fire Chiefs Association is set to bring back a budget template, primarily for the eight non-municipal departments, by the second week in April detailing Fiscal Year 2025 actual expenditures, Fiscal Year 2026’s current budget and the first three quarters of actual expenditures.
“So by the end of March, they’ll be in the third quarter,” said Vest. “We can see where they stand on actual expenditures versus budget for the current year.”
In addition to working with the fire chiefs on rural fire service expenses, the county has about six other major projects it will be trying to account for this year.
Among them are the Crystal Lake future water source project, the next phase of the eastern Moore water district improvements, updates and repairs at the Historic Courthouse in Carthage, funding a new Pinehurst EMS station as well as a new EMS Station on J. Dowdy Road and upgrades to the landfill’s scale house.
“And these are not all the projects,” said Vest. “These are just the ones that are on the near horizon at the forefront of where we are today.”
On May 5, Moore County Schools is set to present its budget to the Board of Commissioners. The county will hold its initial budget presentation on May 19.
Contact Elena Marsh at (910) 693-2484 or elena@thepilot.com.
