Chatham County Commissioners Want No Property Tax Increase

By Zachary Horner, Chatham News + Record Staff

The Chatham County Board of Commissioners has instructed county staff to put together a fiscal year 2020-2021 budget with no property tax increase.

The board made the vote last week during its mid-year budget retreat. In the midst of discussions on requests from county departments and commissioner goals, County Manager Dan LaMontagne said the staff was already working off that assumption, but the vote confirmed it.

LaMontagne added that the county did not “have any specific thing” that would make it believe a tax rate increase was necessary.

“That doesn’t change the fact that if something changes between now and the approval of the budget, we can come back to the board and say, ‘Oh my goodness, this happened,’” he said. “It means we’re going to work towards that goal to bring you a recommended budget that meets that.”

The county government increased the property tax rate by 4.19 cents to 67 cents per $100 in last year’s budget, meaning that taxes on property worth $100,000 would be $670. That was the 10th change in the county’s tax rate in 20 years and seventh change in the last 12 years. The last two times the rate decreased came in years of property revaluations, 2010 and 2018. The county’s next property revaluation takes effect next year.

At last week’s meetings, budget analyst Darrell Butts told the commissioners that the county was expecting two percent growth in overall revenue, but that the county was going to be taking on at least one major additional expense — $1.4 million in operating costs for the new Chatham Grove Elementary School. In last year’s budget, one cent of the property tax rate accounted for $1,140,623 in revenue. Final numbers are not available yet, but a two percent increase in revenue would cover those expenses and still have more than $1 million left over without a tax rate increase. That math is not a final and official accounting, but a projection taking last year’s General Fund budget into account.

Board Chairman Karen Howard and last year’s chairman, Mike Dasher — both of whom are up for re-election this year — stressed their desire for no tax rate increase.

“I say that without knowing how tight that means the belt is going to be,” Howard said. “But I do think that, as a citizen, it would be hard to swallow these hits.”

LaMontagne said there were still some budget requests coming in, particularly from Chatham County Schools. The school district did not finalize its budget until a March vote by the Chatham County Board of Education.

“We’ll see if they come back with a request,” LaMontagne said. “There’s plenty of time to look at their budget still.”

LaMontagne did not present a completed budget draft to the commissioners until May last year, so if the pattern holds, there are still four months reamining until the plan is put together for the board’s consideration and public comment. But as of now, it looks as though the property tax rate will remain the same.

“If we can’t, then we’ll tell you we can’t, or we’re sacrificing x, y or z if we do not do a tax increase,” the county manager said. “Right now, we do not foresee that.”

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