Cary raises property taxes in first budget since town manager resigned
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- Cary raised its tax rate to 36.75 cents per $100 to fund the FY2027 budget.
- The $579.5 million FY2027 budget adds 55 total new town positions.
- The town will add 21 police officers, six firefighters and six 911 operators.
Cary’s property taxes are going up, with the town’s budget adding its first new police officers in a decade alongside more than 30 other new town employee positions.
The tax increase would bring the town’s tax rate to 36.75 cents per $100. The owner of a home valued at $649,000, the median value in Cary, according to the town website, would see their town tax bill rise from about $2,206 to about $2,385, an increase of $179.
The tax increase funds a $579.5 million budget for fiscal year 2027, which starts in July. That’s up around 13% from last year’s budget of $510.9 million.
The tax rate increase, said Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, was in part necessary because of how misled Cary’s Town Council was by former Town Manager Sean Stegall.
Stegall resigned in December amid questions surrounding the town’s spending. Stegall had been town manager since 2016.
He was replaced by now-interim Town Manager Russ Overton, who was previously deputy town manager.
That “breach of trust” was how Cary was able to maintain a lower tax rate for over a decade, Weinbrecht said.
“The low tax rate was achieved in part due to incomplete assessments of the town’s long-term needs,” Weinbrecht said.
In particular, this affected fire and police services, he said.
Town officials said the budget represented the single largest investment in public safety in the town’s history.
He said the lack of investment in public safety during Stegall’s tenure has led to longer response times for emergency services in parts of the town.
What a tax bill will look like
Wake County also passed a tax rate increase in its budget, which means the combined tax bill increase will be nearly $310 for a $649,000 home.
And the property taxes on the median-value Cary home have nearly doubled over the past decade.
The tax rate is actually 1 cent per $100 lower than what the town originally proposed, however.
That’s because the council decided to use an additional $4.3 million in reserves to help pay for aspects of the budget on top the $5.7 million the original budget called for using.
The budget also makes just over $2 million in cuts.
Those include:
- Removing funds for an overhaul of the town’s website.
- Reducing funding for the Cary Chamber of Commerce.
- Cutting funding for festivals.
- Cutting contracted videos.
- Deferring renovation of the 911 call center.
What’s in the budget?
- 21 new police officer positions, part of the town’s additional $112.4 million in total toward public safety, a 44% increase over the current budget. The police department’s budget will increase to around $10 million.
- Six new 911 operators and a total increase to the emergency communications budget of around $1.1 million.
- Six new firefighters and an increase of about $1.4 million to the fire department’s budget.
- $9 million for new fire department vehicles.
- $2.5 million for the design of two new fire stations.
The budget adds a total of 55 new positions to Cary’s town staff of over 1,300.
That also includes a new budget director position and two internal auditor positions to address spending concerns. Weinbrecht said these positions are desperately needed.
This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 9:13 PM.
