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JACKSON – A budget for FY26 has been approved by the Northampton County Board of Commissioners during their meeting on June 16, although the vote was not unanimous this year.

The FY26 budget will take effect on July 1, 2025 and runs through June 30, 2026.

Commissioner Kelvin Edwards motioned to accept the budget, but none of the other commissioners offered up a second. County Attorney Scott McKellar reminded the board that a second is not required to vote.

Board Chair Ed Martin asked if there were any issues they wanted to discuss further. Commissioner Melvetta Broadnax Taylor spoke up to say that she was opposed to the budget, but didn’t offer an explanation why.

“We’ve had four work sessions about the budget,” Kelvin Edwards reminded the board before asking if there was anything they still needed to discuss further.

“We’ve had quite a few work sessions around the budget,” agreed Commissioner Keedra Whitaker, who joined the meeting via Zoom. “So I’m just trying to understand from fellow board members what questions or reservations you have. I know we’ve spent a lot of time and had a lot of extra meetings.”

Edwards spoke up again, noting that the FY26 budget addresses many priorities they’ve discussed in the past, including more funding for veteran services and education.

With no further discussion after that, Martin called for a vote. It passed 4-1 with Broadnax Taylor as the only dissenting vote.

A citizen asked Broadnax Taylor to explain the reasoning for her vote against the FY26 budget.

“To me, we never came together and talked about what the county really needed,” she said.

She also said the budget wasn’t easy for citizens to read and understand, and she also listed concerns with the most recent audit as another reason why she was opposed. She said she’d asked for information about how the audit issues were going to be addressed, but never received the information.

The commissioners, however, held several budget work sessions between April and June where County Manager Julian Phillips went over each part of the proposed budget and made adjustments based on feedback from the board.

As previously reported by the News Herald, Northampton County’s Finance Officer Leslie Edwards presented detailed information to the board in March on what the department is doing to correct issues from the most recent audit.

Northampton County’s total operating budget for FY 25-26 is set at $43,618,029, of which $37.8 million will be in the General Fund. That represents only a slight increase from the previous budget year.

The Fund Balance appropriation, used to balance the budget, is $1.2 million, which continues a trend of decreasing Fund Balance appropriations from previous years.

The budget includes a decrease in the ad valorem tax rate, dropping half a cent to $0.825 per $100 of valuation.

In the FY26 budget, the largest source of revenue is expected to come from ad valorem taxes, projected to total $22.6 million, an increase from the prior fiscal year. But with other subcategories, including collections from prior years and interest and DMV motor vehicle collections, the total ad valorem revenue is expected to equal $24.5 million.

Other major sources of revenue for the county include Sales and Services ($3.6 million), Sales Tax ($3.5 million), Miscellaneous Revenues ($1.6 million), Health Revenues ($1.1 million), and Sales and Services – Health ($1.07 million).

Compared to FY25, Sales and Services saw the biggest estimated increase – mostly thanks to an increase in rescue squad fees – while the other revenue sources are generally expected to stay about the same.

For General Fund expenditures, the departments which received the largest allocations include Public Safety, General Government, Education, Human Services – Health, Other Human Services, and Economic/Physical Development.

As usual, Public Safety received the most funding, at a total of $14.3 million, a slight increase from the prior year. The largest portions of these funds are allocated to the line items for ambulance ($4.6 million), sheriff ($4.4 million), jail ($2.4 million), and emergency communication ($1.4 million).

The General Government allocation also increased slightly for the FY26 budget, with a total of $6.7 million. The areas slated to receive the largest portion of those funds include buildings & grounds ($1.4 million), finance ($1.1 million), and tax department ($902,000).

Education funding saw an increase of approximately $400,000 from the previous fiscal year. The FY26 allocation totals $5.1 million.

The bulk of the Education allocation will go towards Current Expense ($4 million) for the school district. Funds were also allocated for Halifax Community College ($462,000) and Roanoke Chowan Community College ($250,000), both representing an increase from the previous fiscal year funding.

The allocation for Human Services – Health saw a small decrease from FY25, bringing the total to $4.1 million. The areas which will receive the most funding include home health ($1.05 million), health programs ($996,000), environmental health ($422,000), and family planning ($363,000). These were the top funded areas in FY25 as well.

Other Human Services was allocated $3.6 million for FY26, and the bulk of that amount ($3 million) will go to the county’s Department of Social Services. The Office of Aging will receive $385,000 and Veterans Services will receive $102,000.

Economic/Physical Development received a small decrease in funding, bringing their allocation to $1.3 million for FY26. The biggest reason for that decrease was for the capital outlay expenditures (non-departmental) line item, which decreased from $850,000 to $350,000 for FY25.

In previous budget workshop sessions, County Manager Julian Phillips noted that the FY26 includes Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) and merit increases for all full-time and permanent part-time employees.

Separate from the General Fund, the Enterprise Fund (Water & Sewer) is budgeted at $3.9 million for FY26, an increase of approximately $200,000 from the previous fiscal year. The Solid Waste Fund is budgeted at $2.6 million.

Two capital projects were also included in the FY26 budget ordinance as non-recurring items for Emergency Services and Buildings & Grounds. Those projects are $666,500 for two ambulance remounts and narcotic diversion software, and $285,000 for asphalt repairs and seven HVAC replacements.

The FY26 budget ordinance also includes two new fire tax districts in the county – for Conway and Severn. Before voting on the budget, the commissioners unanimously approved the creation of the fire tax districts. The tax rate for the Conway district will be seven cents, and the rate for the Severn district will be five and a half cents.

A public hearing to consider citizen feedback on the proposed budget was held during a special called meeting on June 9, but no one chose to speak for or against the budget at that time.