No tax increase proposed for Macon
Downtown Franklin N.C.
Harrison Keely photo
Macon County’s proposed Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget maintains the current tax rate, even as county revenues are projected to increase slightly.
“Revenues are slightly higher due to an increase in the taxable value of properties,” said County Manager Warren Cabe in his first ever budget presentation to county commissioners.
“Revenues are also slightly higher due to increased quantities of service fees that are collected, building permits, environmental health permits, various things that go through our processes.”
Sales tax revenues are not projected to increase in the coming fiscal year.
“A couple years ago, you had some really big upswings in those and that was very positive for us financially, but one of the things we’ve seen is that basically those are remaining flat, where they were last year,” said Cabe. “So we’re not seeing a really big increase in our sales tax numbers.”
The proposed Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget is $64,711,599, up from $63,074,000 in the current fiscal year.
Related Items
Taste of Scotland Festival
Join Franklin Bird club for Macon County walks
Ken Brown pledges local control, servant leadership in 118th District bid
Budget increases, millage rate decreases in Jackson
“What we’re giving you this year is based on the same tax rate that we had last year, so the value of your properties has gone up, so you’re generating a little more money off of those,” said Cabe. “That gives you the ability to tackle some of these projects and some of these endeavors that we have without having to increase that tax.”
The majority of budget revenues, about 56%, comes from tax collections, which are estimated to equal about $36 million in the coming fiscal year. Sales tax money is expected to generate another $14 million.
“You have a lot of things that you can accomplish this year,” Cabe told commissioners.
The biggest portion of expenses in the budget is public safety at 31% of expenditures, and the second largest category is human services at 22%. After that comes education at 19% of expenditures and then general government at 14%.
“Most people, when you say public safety, they think law enforcement, but that also includes your code enforcement folks, so all of that’s under your public safety section there,” said Cabe.
The proposed budget includes a 3% cost of living adjustment for Macon County employees.
“I want to remind the board that that’s not a raise, that’s an adjustment based on industry standards that says something that you bought this time last year for a dollar at this point would cost you a dollar and three cents,” Cabe explained. “We do those adjustments to make sure that the purchasing power is the same. It’s not a raise, it’s not necessarily giving them a bump in pay, it’s a calculated adjustment to make sure that they’re making the same amount of money at least that they were last year, that they have the same purchasing power.”
The budget also contains a proposal to help retain and recruit new employees, those who have been with the county between five and 10 years. Employees will be eligible for a longevity payment after five years of working with the county where previously, longevity payments were only given after 10 years of employment.
There were 17 new positions request by different departments in the budget process. Of those, Cabe only approved four to include in his budget proposal.
“One of the difficult things that I have to do is figure out somewhere in the middle there, what we can afford to pay, what our needs are and come up with some sort of a compromise and then present that to you,” said Cabe. “I encourage them to challenge us. If you have the case and you need to come before us in a work session, I challenge them to come do that and make their case. It’s ok if they come up here and say, ‘I know he said no, but we need a yes.’ You all need to have that opportunity to make that decision if they desire to do that.”
The four new positions proposed in the budget include two sheriff’s deputies and one part-time school resource officer. Cabe said he included those positions because the sheriff’s oepartment was able to absorb those positions within their operating budget, so that there was no overall increase to their budget financially.
Cabe also approved one new position for the Department of Social Services due to high volume.
“One of the concerns that we have based on those numbers is to make sure we have enough social workers to match the amount of cases that are coming through there,” said Cabe.
The department had requested three additional employees during the budget process.
“I was ok with one of those coming into that position and the reason I put this in the proposal is at least 50% of that position is paid for by North Carolina,” said Cabe. “So, all the positions that I included in here were either absorbed within the organizational budget that we already had or were funded at least partially from some other agency somewhere.”
Emergency services requested five employees during the budget process but did not get approval for any of the positions.
“One management position was converted over to a field tech position for EMS,” said Cabe. “That was the position that I vacated there. We’ve done some reorganization there … I took that one management position that I had and converted it over to a field tech position and split up some of those other duties, so that’s where that position came from.”
Cabe recommended that the county complete a salary study in the coming fiscal year to create a five-year plan. But rather than contracting someone from outside the county to complete the salary study he recommended that staff to the study internally.
Macon County Schools requested an allocation of $12,377,245 for FY 2025-26, but according to Cabe, the county could not fund that amount, which would have constituted a $2.2 million increase over the current year funding allotment. Instead, the proposed budget allocated $10,491,774 to the school system, which represents a $400,000 increase over the current year budget.
On the school system’s capital improvement request was the need for a new East Franklin Elementary School, at an estimated $36 million. Cabe recommended the county prepare to apply for the same Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund grant that supplied $62 million for the new Franklin High School. The award for a new elementary school is capped at $42 million.
The county has not decided yet whether it will fund $250,000 for the free lunch program, to cover the cost of school meals where students do not receive free meals through the Community Eligibility Program. Last year that money was funded through the county’s unassigned fund balance.
“I’m not gonna argue the benefits either way of the program, I certainly know there are folks that deserve that,” said Cabe. “[Last year] you funded that expense out of your fund balance; it’s supposed to be a one-time expense, that’s usually what you fund with those type funds. My suggestion for you for that would be to wait until July and then address that. Have them come to you.”
The proposed budget includes $510,439 in operation funding to Southwestern Community College, a slight increase over the current year allocation. The county will also fund $125,600 for capital expenditures at SCC.
“They actually had a much bigger list than that, including $800,000 for a driving range and some other things that they wanted included, but we were able to include enough funds to replace the roof on a modular unit, do some electrical system repairs, a water heating system replacement, some paint and some railing replacements.”
The county will fund a 3.58% increase to the Fontana Regional Library system for a total allocation of $1,255,634 to operate libraries in Macon County.
Total debt service for the county this year will be $9,554,133. All but $120,000 of the county debt is currently tied to education.
The only fee changes recommended are to the EMS billing rate structure. Macon County typically sets rates based on the allowable Medicare fee structure for rural areas and this has not been adjusted since 2021, which will result in an anticipated increase in service fees of $200,000.
“Macon County is in a strong position to move forward into the future meeting the needs of the current generation and future generations alike,” Cabe wrote in his budget message. “This budget is designed for efficient and effective services generating as much return as possible for the investment.”
