The Town Council’s budget workshop tomorrow at 9 a.m. in the Pitts Center is being held for a preliminary review of the Town Manager’s projected General Fund expenses and revenues for fiscal year 2025-26, according to the meeting agenda posted on the Town website.
To see the meeting notice and agenda, go to:
https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/soshoresnc-pubu/MEET-Agenda-d7948a03343c45ee83f4c393307dd45f.pdf
Town Manager Cliff Ogburn, who also serves as the Town Budget Officer, will submit his proposed FY 2025-26 Annual Operating Budget to the Town Council at its May 6 meeting. The projected expenses and revenues he presents tomorrow constitute a draft of that budget.
Because FY 2025-26 is a property reappraisal year, Mr. Ogburn also should reveal the revenue-neutral tax rate in the Town of Southern Shores. (See below.)
A public hearing on the proposed FY 2025-26 budget will be held during the Town Council’s June 3 meeting. No public comments will be heard tomorrow.
COUNTY COMMITS TO ‘REVENUE-NEUTRAL’ TAX RATE
Dare County Board of Commissioners Chair Bob Woodward announced at the Board’s meeting Monday that the Commissioners have committed to a revenue-neutral tax rate for FY 2025-26, according to a report Monday by The Outer Banks Voice.
If the Southern Shores Town Council observes the precedent set by previous Councils during property reappraisal years, it will do the same.
A “revenue-neutral” tax rate is a tax rate estimated to produce revenue for the next fiscal year (2025-26) equal to the revenue that would have been produced by the current tax rate (as assessed in 2024-25) if no reappraisal had occurred.
The budget officer of the governing board—in the case of the county, that is Town Manager Bobby Outten—is required by N.C. law to include a statement of the revenue-neutral property tax rate for the proposed budget in a year in which a general property reappraisal has occurred. (See N.C. Gen. Statutes sec. 159-11(e).)
According to The Voice, Mr. Woodward said that the revenue-neutral rate in the county will be 26.32 cents per $100 of property value, a reduction of about 35 percent from the current tax rate of 40.05 cents per $100 of value.
Although N.C. statute requires calculation and publication of this tax rate, it does not require a municipality to adopt it.
THE SOUTHERN SHORES BEACON, 4/9/25
The Southern Shores Beacon 