FROM STAFF REPORTS
The Iredell County Board of Commissioners approved the county’s $321.8 million budget for fiscal year 2024-2025 on Tuesday evening.
The final budget included several changes from the spending plan presented by County Manager Beth Mull on May 7 as a result of three workshops commissioners had with staff.
The most significant change was the approval of a 2 percent salary increase for existing county employees. That is on top of the 3 percent increase that was already included in the budget — so current employees will receive a 5 percent raise on July 1. (The addition of the 2 percent retention increase added $1.6 million to the budget.)
Commissioners also approved a $115,000 allocation for a youth football program that was not in the original budget, along with $13,500 for a software upgrade and $6,000 to pay for rescue squad certifications.
Mull said all of the budget additions were offset by cuts in capital spending totaling nearly $1.7 million.
Overall, the budget reduces spending by $1,805,800 (0.56 percent) compared to the 2023-2024 budget.
The spending plan maintains the property tax rate at 50 cents per $100 valuation. It includes funding for 53 new full-time county employees — including 13 positions for the Sheriff’s Office, 16 for Emergency Medical Services and 17 for the Department of Social Services.
The budget boosts current expense funding for Iredell-Statesville Schools, the Mooresville Graded School District and Mitchell Community College by $2.1 million to nearly $74.2 million. An additional $15.3 million is earmarked for school capital improvements.
No one spoke during the public hearing, but commissioners had plenty to say during the discussion about the budget and during the commissioners’ comments portion of the meeting.
Commissioner Gene Houpe said commissioners carefully scrutinized the spending plan while looking out for taxpayers.
“We’ve cut where we can cut without impacting the services we are obligated to provide,” he said.
The county funds 26 departments and 19 volunteer fire departments throughout the county.
Commissioner Scottie Brown described the budget workshops as “a grueling three days.”
“We made the right decisions,” he said. “We didn’t take it lightly.”
Vice Chair Bert Connolly said the demand for county services — and need for additional money to build schools — will continue to increase as the City of Statesville, Town of Mooresville and Town of Troutman continue approving new residential developments. The Statesville City Council approved more than 500 new units during Monday’s meeting, and there are about 20,000 new residential units in the development pipeline across the county.
The Iredell County Detention Center housed 430 inmates earlier this week, Connolly added, meaning commissioners will have to start planning for an expansion. That’s in addition to other major capital projects on the horizon, including a new courthouse, a new health department, new sheriff’s office, and the fairgrounds expansion — and the need for more schools.
Iredell-Statesville Schools is awaiting bids for the new Weathers Creek High School, which is needed to alleviate overcrowding at Lake Norman and South Iredell high schools. Voters approved $80 million for the new high school in a 2020 bond referendum and commissioners have agreed to borrow $40 million, but cost estimates for the project are as high as $200 million.
“It’s going to hurt when we have to pull the strong on that — and hurt bad,” Connolly said, “and there’s elementary schools behind that.”
Those who think the increased tax revenues from the new residential construction are adequate to pay for new school construction and the demand for additional services created by the influx of thousands of new residents are misinformed, Commissioner Brad Stroud said.
In order to generate enough property tax revenue to cover the county’s cost of educating one child, a new home must have a tax value of $455,000, he said.
While county commissioners cannot stop municipal boards from approving voluntary annexations for new residential developments, the board has taken a stand against increasing the size of the extraterritorial jurisdictions in which the municipalities control the zoning of property that is not in their incorporated areas.
“That’s the limit of our ability to control growth,” Stroud said.
Meanwhile, Chairwoman Melissa Neader said she was proud of the investments that the county has made in its employees — in the newly approved budget and past budgets.
“Our employees are the heartbeat of this county,” she said. “Without them, we could do nothing.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that employees would receive a retention bonus.
Please read the above carefully and understand the “new Weathers Creek High School “ of the 2020 bond referendum which was intended to alleviate overcrowding back then already of Lake Norman and South Iredell High Schools, while new developments continue to pop up left, right, and center. This is an incomplete project that is too big for this Board of County Commissioners to handle. It is time to bring some new leadership into this stalemate.
This is a project that has failed to finish due to ISS and the school board. MGSD managed to complete and open a school on time that was approved at the same time as Weathers Creek High. Maybe if the school board spent less time bickering not just with the county commissioners but amongst themselves they could have made more progress.
But hey, according to Jeff James, we just need to increase property taxes some more or sales tax and earmark it all for the schools.
He isn’t wrong, the school district is losing about $50 million of state, not county, funding because the property taxes are so low and out of alignment with the rest of the state. But hey at least we can give an extra half a billion to private schools who are basically unregulated. People keep pissing on public schools but wait until the breaking point when schools close. I’m sure many readers have experienced their kids being in rooms and questioning why the school is keeping that teacher and why even hire them. Welcome to the current state of education. When you disrespect and treat teachers like crap it gets to the point where the only people available to hire are warm bodies that can fog a mirror. No reason for teachers to stay in the southern end when they could go to CMS and make up to $10k more a year. LN lost 3 high quality teachers this year to Hough because of this.
Matt, not at all what was said. To misrepresent what he said is simply bearing false witness. If your a non-believer I can understand. If not, Sunday is always a good time to repent. He said if we continue to grow the county we cannot support the services needed without a tax increase. Property tax is an undue burden on all, while sales tax that we gladly pay more elsewhere is great but not here is wrong. Again, refer to point one. Over 50% of the workforce enters Iredell from outside, what better way to offload some of the tax burden on others and protect our local property tax. Raising sales tax .5 percent equal to surrounding counties would generate upwards of $20 million. The schools would not have to ask for more and have enough funding to close the huge gap our low tax rate penalizes the school. While he said I hate taxes but fully understand if you demand services you have to pay. The Bible also says it’s an infidel that want take care of his own. So if you feel being funded 112/116 districts is good see previous point.