Carteret County commissioners voted 4-2 Monday night to approve a 2023-24 budget with a general (operating) fund of a little more than $123 million and a one-cent increase in the property tax rate from 33 cents to 34 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The tax increase will take effect July 1 and increases the county tax bill for a property valued at $200,000 from $660 in the current fiscal year to $680 in 2023-24.
During the commission’s monthly session in the board room in the administration building on Courthouse Square, commissioners Bob Cavanaugh and Chuck Shinn voted against the budget because they opposed the tax increase.
Commissioners Jimmy Farrington, Mark Mansfield, Ed Wheatly and Chris Chadwick voted for the budget, even though each said it was difficult to vote for the tax increase. Commissioner David Quinn was absent, teaching overseas under a long-known commitment. Mansfield made the motion to approve and Wheatly seconded.
The tax increase will take effect July 1 and increase the county tax bill for a property valued at $200,000 from $660 in the current fiscal year to $680 in 2023-24.
Carteret County’s tax rate continues to be the second-lowest tax rate in North Carolina.
The Carteret County Public School System, including charter schools, will get about $27 million under the budget, and Carteret Community College will get about $3 million. Both are slightly more than in the current fiscal year.
The budget includes one-cent increases in the separate fire and emergency services taxes in the Western Carteret Fire and EMS Department (WCFD) District, but the board rejected the town of Newport’s request for a three-cent Fire and EMS district tax increase. Shinn, who represents Newport, made a motion to approve the request but didn’t get a second.
Commissioners were critical of the WCFD Board of Directors’ request for the tax increases, citing a very expensive purchase of an ambulance and some high salaries in the department, but noted the WCFD board is made up of representatives of the towns it serves: Bogue, Cape Carteret, Cedar Point and Peletier.
Commissioners said the WCFD must agree to continue to serve the unincorporated Stella community with its second fire station located there and not ask the county to take over responsibility for serving Stella. The main WCFD station is in Cedar Point.
The Emergency Services Division has the largest increase, $1.39 million with $1.24 million in paramedic services. Of the $1.24 million additional paramedic services, $.88 million is for the county providing services for EMS service districts.
Due to increased service demand, an additional paramedic for the Broad and Gales Creek service area is in the approved budget. Broad and Gales Creek district taxes and fees fund this position.
The budget pays for two additional county-funded paramedics in the western end of the county. In addition, there is one new district-funded paramedic at the Broad and Gales Creek Department, which the county took over in 2022; three district-funded paramedics for the Otway Department; and three district-funded EMT basics for Otway.
The sheriff’s department gets one new detective and a records custodian.
The social services department also gets new employees to help deal with the state’s expansion of the Medicaid program.
Get all the details on Carteret County News-Times
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