County officials approved a budget with a property tax rate of 30.6 cents per $100 of value Thursday night, eliminating nearly 100 jobs.

New Hanover County Board of Commissioners chairman Bill Rivenbark and commissioners Dane Scalise and LeAnn Pierce, all Republicans, voted in favor of the spending plan, while the Democrats on the board, commissioners Rob Zapple and Stephanie Walker, voted against the measure.

Stating their opposition throughout a tense budget workshop Thursday afternoon, Zapple and Walker described the cuts as taking services away from the community and losing employees the county needs.

But Scalise and Pierce disagreed, with Scalise arguing in favor of cuts at a time when many county residents will have to pay more in property taxes because of a recent revaluation that sent values soaring.

Explaining the job cuts, County Manager Chris Coudriet said, “I've been asked to take $36 million of recurring revenue out of the equation (the previous proposal of a 35-cent tax rate), and the number of people is being associated with the reduction of service that the board is asking for. It is 70 positions with this model that would be impacted … There are 29 vacancies. That is the reality of the number of people that are there. This budget is an absolute reflection of what a majority of the board has expressed, which is a 30.6 rate, not higher than 30.9, and a 5% reduction in operating expenses." 

He added, “75% of our budget is people. I can't achieve that without addressing the number of positions.”

The 35-cent proposal held a $488.5 million budget and budget documents at the time stated, that the 35-cent rate, “coupled with higher property values, provides additional revenue to fund county services in the face of rising costs."

The 35-cent rate would have resulted in a county tax bill of about $170 per month, an increase of $39 per month compared to the last fiscal year, for a home assessed at $581,000, according to the recommended budget.

In addition to the positions, other cuts in the budget adopted Thursday included:

• $3 million from a workforce housing allocation;
• $1.6 million by eliminating funding for non-county agencies because the New Hanover Community Endowment is picking up that part through a grant announced Thursday morning;
• $975,000 by eliminating six pre-K classrooms (previously expanded because of federal COVID funds;
• $350,000 by eliminating second-chance legal aid; and more.

“It is very easy to say yes to everything and tell the taxpayer to bear the cost….saying no to some of these items is a hard thing to do, but it is a thing that many of our citizens want us to do, and that is why it is in this proposal,” Scalise said during Thursday’s meeting.

Zapple took issue with a $2.3 million cut that would delay upgrades to public safety software, such as that used by the county’s 911 center, saying the county could be setting itself up for a slowed emergency response if the aging software were to fail. Before the budget was adopted Thursday evening, officials agreed to shift funds from a grocery store project in one of the county’s food deserts to the software upgrade.

Zapple also opposed a $318,000 cut that eliminates a court video equipment upgrade.

“Some of these cuts … when you look into them, simply don't make sense because they end up costing us,” he said.

Zapple said the current video process is failing.

“It doesn't work most of the time, so it results in having to take prisoners from our detention center downtown to our courthouse on a regular basis for first appearances. The whole point of having this video system is so you don't have to do it. It's a way more efficient thing. So not approving this new equipment will mean that we'll be constantly in the business of transporting prisoners and taking time from our sheriff's deputies who are doing it, as well as clogging up our court system, which will ultimately have an effect on our prison out there,” he said.

A document handed out at Thursday’s meeting by the county staff said 82 of the 99 job eliminations would be achieved “via a combination of planned reductions and attrition” from the following departments and offices:

• Civic engagement office
• Communications
• Community Justice Services
• County manager’s office
• Engineering 
• Facilities Management 
• Finance
• Facilities Management
• Health & Human Services
• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Library
• Arboretum
• Parks & Gardens
• Planning & Land Use
• Social Services
• Strategy
• Tax

Zapple said "firing" people "for doing nothing other than their job as a way to work a political agenda is not the way to do this. ... I am really proud of the work that our county has done, and our county manager has managed over the past 12 years now to kind of raise us up to where we are one of the wealthiest" and most "vital" counties in North Carolina.

Scalise said taxpayers, some of whom will pay higher property taxes no matter what the rate because of the county's recent revaluation, should be the priority.

"It does not start with our employees. It starts with the taxpayers. It starts with the people. I absolutely love our employees. Our employees do a great job. But the fact of the matter is, organizations, on a regular basis, have to evaluate what their revenue is and whether or not their expectations for revenue are being met, as well as the economic pressures that they're under," Scalise said. "And our constituents, our taxpayers, the people we represent should be our primary thought, not employees. Employees are a secondary consideration behind taxpayers."