Wake County Commissioners approve budget, raise tax rate. What it means

Wake County residents will see higher tax bills in July after the county commission passed its budget and a higher tax rate Monday.

The new tax rate will cause a $90 increase in the tax bill on a $450,000 home, the median assessed value across Wake County.

The additional funds contribute to a nearly $2.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, an approximately 5.4% increase over last year’s nearly $2.2 billion budget.

Those extra dollars are funding things like additional staff for county jails and public education. The County Commissioners cited the state governments’ lack of funding for public education and other state government responsibilities as one of the largest reasons necessitating the tax increase.

On Monday, commissioners moved $110,000 from other parts of the budget to fund programs focused on providing food to those in need.

That was the only change from County Manager David Ellis’ original proposal, despite calls for additional funding for library workers and the district attorney’s office.

Tax bills

Wake County’s biggest municipalities — Raleigh and Cary — are both considering increases to their tax rates as well.

Combined, Raleigh and Wake County’s tax rate increase could see the owner of a median-valued home pay another approximately $144 in property taxes.

And the proposed rate increase in Cary could mean a combined Wake County-Cary tax bill on a median home in the Wake County portion of Cary that’s $314 higher than last year.

Both municipalities are proposing extra investment in public safety, with Raleigh asking for funds for another 23 police officers and Cary another 21.

That comes as property taxes in the Triangle over the past decade have risen dramatically.

The median Cary home in Wake County, assessed at around $577,000, now comes with a property tax bill of around $4,100, which is almost double what the tax bill on a median home was 10 years ago.

The median Raleigh home, valued at about $391,000, sees about a $3,400 tax bill, $1,400 more than the median home 10 years ago.

What didn’t the budget fund?

Shortly after the budget proposal was released last month, library workers protested it at a public hearing. They said understaffing and reduced temporary staff hours have resulted in turnover, stress and difficulties running library programming.

Wake County Library Workers United, a union representing some library workers, was in particular focused on the county cutting hours for library workers in the budget.

Wake County Library Director Tammy Baggett said that the county is doing a staffing study to better understand its needs and address staff concerns. The county has added significantly more hours for positions over the past decade, it added in a statement.

Wiley Nickel, who is currently the lone candidate running for Wake County District Attorney, asked the county for $600,000 to help fund more attorneys in the district attorney’s office.

He said the county’s currently overcrowded jails are in part caused because it takes prosecutors a significant amount of time to move through a backlog of cases, leaving people in jail while they await court proceedings.

The county has already approved plans to build a new wing on its main jail on Hammond Road and temporarily reopen an older jail building on the same road to accommodate additional need.

As part of reopening the older jail building, called the detention center annex, the county plans to hire 92 new employees at county jails, totalling an additional $7 million. The annex is supposed to open sometime in the first quarter of 2027, and it will add 240 beds to the county’s inmate capacity.

Why didn’t commissioners spend more?

The commissioners ultimately decided not to spend any more money than the county manager recommended, citing financial difficulties.

Local governments across the state are also feeling the effects of lowered estimates for property tax revenue caused by property tax exemptions and appeals, Ellis previously said.

One property tax exemption in particular, called the “Blue Ridge” loophole, will cost the county $12.3 million in fiscal year 2027, according to the county.

The loophole allows a for-profit investor who owns 99.9% of an apartment complex to be exempt from taxes because 0.1% of the complex is owned by a nonprofit. The exemption is permitted under state law, but the state legislature has advanced a proposal to close the loophole

After the county conducted its revaluation of property values in 2024, property values rose sharply — by an average of 50%. Thousands of homeowners and companies appealed those increases, which are projected to take away about $18 million in tax revenue from the county in fiscal year 2027, The News & Observer previously reported.

What food programs did commissioners fund?

Brett Pinsent, market manager of the Cary Downtown Farmers Market had previously asked the commissioners to reconsider a decision not to fund several food-providing programs.

The county had given the Cary farmers market $11,000 in 2025, he said. With that money, they were able to help feed 175 families and 100 children, Pinsent said.

But they were by the county informed in March that they wouldn’t be getting more funding this year, he said, as the programs the county did this through were ending.

“This is a devastating blow not only for our market, but for all the farmers markets here in Wake County,” Pinsent said at a commissioners’ meeting in late April.

Commissioner Vickie Adamson asked county staff to help find the funding for food-related programs in county budget work session.

Now, the county will continue to fund two produce providing programs, at least for the next year:

One program effectively allows people who get SNAP or EBT food assistance to get discounts at county farmers markets.

The other program delivers boxes of fresh local produce to child care facilities across the county.

The county moved money from a “non-departmental” category of funds to support the programs. This money otherwise would have been available if the county needed to contract for work that wasn’t accounted for in another part of the budget, according to county spokesperson Dara Demi.

Notable items in the budget

Some of the items passed in the budget include:

• Fully funding a request from Wake County Public Schools for an additional $25.3 million
• 153 new employees with a total cost of about $15 million. That includes new employees for county jails, new EMT positions and more Medicaid administration positions
• An additional $2 million for pre-K programs
• An additional $1.8 million to fund Wake Tech’s budget
• Around $20 million in employee pay increases

All of those items were in Ellis’ original budget proposal in May.

Nolan Wilkinson

The News & Observer