NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Republican commissioners stood by their decision Monday to pass a budget for New Hanover County last week, despite residents describing the move as “short-sighted” and lacking transparency.
READ MORE: NHC cuts $36M and 70 people to downsize tax rate, abandons pre-K, food co-op
While the discussion of New Hanover County’s fiscal year 2025-26 budget was no longer on Monday’s commissioner meeting agenda, it was the only topic brought up during public comment. Though interrupted by a bomb threat on the courthouse, each of the 12 speakers were against the adopted budget, passed in a 3-2 vote along party lines last Thursday at the commissioners’ agenda review meeting.
Approved by Chair Bill Rivenbark, Vice Chair LeAnn Pierce and Commissioner Dane Scalise, the budget is based on a 30.6-cent tax rate. This is 14.4 cents lower than the current rate, though property owners are likely to still see increases to their tax bill, due to recent property revaluations averaging a 67% increase countywide.
To reach the 30.6 cents rate, $36 million were made in service cuts, including 70 people that now have to be let go from the county. The reductions also included the $3-million annual workforce housing commitment, $975,000 for six pre-K classrooms, $1.6 million in non-county agency funding, $875,000 in merit increases for high performing employees and more.
At last week’s agenda review, Democratic commissioners Stephanie Walker and Rob Zapple decried the cuts as “dismantling” of services the county prides itself on. They asked for the Republican majority to delay its vote until Monday’s regular meeting, to be transparent and allow the public to digest and provide feedback on the new proposal. The Republicans said that was not necessary because the agenda review meeting was being livestreamed.
Public speakers on Monday didn’t buy the justification.
“I think it was borderline shady to approve the budget at an agenda review meeting without a public comment period, with the rework having such a drastic effect,” Andy Jones, CEO of WARM NC, said on Monday.
State law requires municipalities to hold a public hearing no sooner than 10 days after the recommended budget is presented. The county held its hearing on June 2 and is not required to hold another, even if significant changes are made to the budget — which is what happened last Thursday.
Zapple suggested the Republicans didn’t want to give the public another opportunity to provide feedback because “they recognize that the budget they passed is unnecessarily cruel, backward-looking and self-defeating.”
Pierce asked County Manager Chris Coudriet if the county had fulfilled its public hearing requirements, to which Coudriet confirmed it met the standard. The June 2 public hearing was based on Coudriet’s recommended budget based on a 33.9-cent tax rate.
“I think that’s the distinction,” he said.
Feedback from the public hearing was mixed, with some saying the 33.9-cent rate was a fair compromise between the county manager’s original 35-cent recommendation and the 29.2 revenue neutral rate desired by Scalise and Pierce. Others said the rate wasn’t low enough, wanting to minimize impact to taxpayers.
Port City Daily reached out to Rivenbark, Scalise and Pierce asking why they thought voting on the budget last Thursday was necessary, and if they thought the public and county employees had enough time to digest it.
Additionally, PCD asked Rivenbark — who presented himself on the fence about the budget at the June 2 public hearing — what influenced his decision to fall in line with Pierce and Scalise. Neither Pierce nor Rivenbark responded.
Scalise responded:
“My comment: ‘Mr. Chair, I know you started off the meeting with your statement about not wanting to vote. I think we’ve heard from the public now. And we’ve certainly heard from our staff. And I know there’s been discussion internally for quite some time. I’m curious if you would accept a motion to move forward and vote on the budget so we can move forward.’ – Commissioner Rob Zapple, June 2, 2025.”
Port City Daily followed up, asking if Scalise would be answering questions sent.
Scalise responded: “Either use the quote or not. It is directly responsive to your inquiry.”
The commissioner brought up Zapple’s comment during Monday’s meeting as well.
“He made a motion to move forward at the first available opportunity, and now that the budget that he intended to put together did not pass, he takes issue with the timeliness of this vote,” Scalise said.
Zapple retorted there was a difference between his call for a vote and Scalise’s motion to approve the budget on Thursday. Zapple explained the 33.9-cent budget was available for public inspection 10 days before the hearing; by comparison, not even he had reviewed the budget before it was presented and voted on Thursday, Zapple said.
He also shared two emails he received over the weekend from constituents: one from a mom reporting her daughter’s loss of a job as a school therapist cut in the adopted budget, another saying the impact of the loss in services in the adopted budget far exceeds the increase to her tax bill.
Chair Rivenbark was absent from Monday’s meeting, but commissioners Pierce and Scalise defended the budget in a discussion after public comment.
“This budget has been characterized in extremely severe rhetorical terms,” Scalise said. “I should say, the reality is, that what this budget did was increase the county’s budget by 11 million versus 40 to 50 million — it still increased the budget. It increased the budget in order to provide more funding to the schools, senior resources, veterans, the District Attorney’s office, and it maintained any number of other core service items.”
Operational increases from last year’s budget for New Hanover County Schools ($8 million) and the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office ($5.1 million), as originally proposed in the county manager’s budget, have been preserved in the adopted version.
The budget’s general fund has also increased by $11-million over last year’s approved budget of $448 million; however, the county has spent over $448 million throughout 2024-2025, closing the fiscal year closer to $497 million. This means the adopted budget will actually decrease the amount of spending from what the county is currently paying for, a fact pointed out by the county manager at Thursday’s budget session but seemingly not accepted by the conservative commissioners.
The budget also pulls $8.1 million from its fund balance to prevent even more cuts. Assuming New Hanover County has the same expenses next fiscal year, it will need to identify the same amount of money elsewhere or draw down its savings again.
“I can’t understand how you can take $8 million and you’re not gonna raise taxes next year,” resident John Bauer said during Monday’s public comment. “Because, as a former county manager for 15 years, I know — in Pender and Lenoir counties — you never raise taxes in an election year. So what’s gonna happen next year? Are you going to take another $8 million to balance the budget?”
Walker also agreed.
“This decision doesn’t just harm families and employees in the short term; it also sets us up for instability in next year’s budget by using $8.1 million from the county’s fund balance to artificially lower the tax rate instead of relying on sustainable revenue,” Walker said. “The county now faces a structural deficit. Essential services have been cut, but fixed costs remain if revenue doesn’t keep pace with only gaining even deeper cuts or more difficult decisions next year with fewer options and less flexibility to respond.”
Before Walker spoke, Pierce asked for additional comments, and both Scalise and Walker indicated intent to speak. Walker was going to let Scalise go ahead of her, but instead he fell silent. Walker asked again if he wanted to speak, to which he, again, wouldn’t respond.
The lack of acknowledgment follows several snappish exchanges between the two commissioners at the agenda review meeting. At one point, Scalise asked Walker if she would be “respectful enough to not sigh audibly” while he was talking.
On Monday, Scalise didn’t answer Pierce either when she asked if he would like to speak. Walker went ahead to say her piece. A former school board member, Walker spoke to the pre-K classroom elimination.
“These programs are proven to support school readiness, long-term academic success and family stability,” Walker said. “These are not extras; they are essential.”
The budget puts a dent in New Hanover County Schools’ pre-K offerings; the adopted budget cuts six pre-K classrooms, added in 2020 and funded with Covid relief dollars. Those funds have expired now, meaning the nearly $1 million expense would have had to move to the general fund to continue.
The loss of these classrooms, affecting upward of 100 students, was the most criticized budget action during Monday’s public comment.
Pre-K worker Chelsea Lord said the classroom reduction was not “fiscally conservative” but “morally wrong.”
“108 at-risk children, three- and four-year-olds who were identified as having a need, will no longer get the education that they were promised,” Lord said. “These are families who already had a spot. They were told that they were getting this care, and now my office has to call them and tell them that they have to figure out other means, if they can find it and if they can afford it.”
Vice Chair Pierce reiterated the county should give NHCS a lump sum and avoid funding specific line items, such as pre-K — similarly stated by Scalise earlier in the meeting. Pierce then said it was her understanding that the six pre-K classes would continue to be funded with the operating addition provided to NHCS.
On Friday, NHCS Superintendent Chris Barnes released a statement that no pre-K staff member will lose their job as a result of the county’s budget adoption. He reported the district is working on revising its budget to accommodate families that have already enrolled their children in pre-K.
“If this becomes financially impossible, we will work on finding as many solutions as possible,” Barnes said.
However, some speakers at Monday’s commissioners’ meeting argued other organizations that have lost funding will not be able to pivot. Amy Feath, executive director of the Carousel Child Advocacy Center, said it appears favorable to state, national and foundation funders if there is a local buy-in, such as at the county level.
The adopted budget forgoes any funding to non-county agencies, originally proposed at $1.6 million, though that has now been picked up by The Endowment, as suggested by Scalise and Pierce.
Scalise and Pierce showed no signs they would reconsider their votes, Scalise reading emails he’s received from senior citizens on fixed incomes requesting commissioners keep the tax rate low.
“The point is not that these voices are any more important than the voices that are in this room,” Scalise said. “They’re all important, but the commissioners are charged with a very significant responsibility, and that’s to consider all of the various people and priorities in this community and make what we believe is the best and fairest outcome for everybody, there will be disagreement about how that works.”
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