A proposed property tax increase in Jackson County would pay for increased school safety personnel and community safety resources. 

While Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers has seen several budgets during his previous stint as an alderman, he appears to be pleased with his first as Mayor. 

As they prepare for the annual budgeting process, Swain County commissioners are considering placing a quarter-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot. 

It was a good day for Interim Haywood County Manager Joel Mashburn, and will probably go down as a good day for Haywood County taxpayers as well. 

Sylva residents won’t see a tax increase this year, but despite the proposed budget’s 15 percent spending increase over 2018-2019, purse strings will remain tight. 

Although it’s still early in the budget process, Interim Haywood County Manager Joel Mashburn told commissioners that requests for the FY 2018-19 budget already total more than $3 million over projected revenues. 

In a book on the nature of state legislatures, the journalist Frank Trippett coined the term “true constituency” to explain why so many politicians act as badly as they do.

U.S. Forest Service rangers got an earful from Swain County residents last week during a public hearing regarding the proposed Forest Management Plan.

Assuming a legislative override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto — which happened as The Smoky Mountain News went to press June 27 — North Carolinians could be in for a slew of tax cuts that will save state residents by one estimate more than $530 million over two years when they take effect in 2019.

Haywood County’s 2017 property revaluation was like a bucket of cold water in the face of every local government official in the county, but nowhere more so than Maggie Valley.