According to North Carolina law, local governments in the state must adopt a budget by midnight on June 30 that covers the 12 months from July 1 to June 30 of the following year.  At a Tuesday, June 18 meeting, the Greensboro City Council beat that deadline by 12 days when the city adopted a new budget.

The budget total for the City of Greensboro for fiscal year 2024-2025 came to $802 million.

The budget approved by the City Council kept the property tax rate at 67.25 cents for every $100 of assessed property value. However, the city is hitting the citizens up in other ways: water, sewer, and stormwater rates, for instance, will increase by an average of 9.1 percent. That will mean an increase of just over $4.50 a month for average residential customers.

On Thursday evening, June 20 – the first day of Summer– the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will adopt the Guilford County budget, which will also of course affect the citizens of Greensboro. The new county budget, like the city’s budget, will not include a tax rate increase, but that budget will also hit the county’s citizens up by including some really hefty increases in fees for everything from using park facilities to renting pickleball courts.

The City of Greensboro, like Guilford County, is throwing in some perks for their employees in the new budget. The 2024-2025 budget adopted by the City Council introduces a minimum wage for city employees of $18.75 an hour. That’s right at two and a half times the minimum wage in North Carolina, which is currently $7.25 an hour.

In addition, all city employees will receive a four percent salary hike.

The city’s new budget also aims to increase public safety by adding additional positions for the city’s Behavioral Health Team and the Transportation Department’s new Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program.

Battling homelessness and assuring affordable housing has been a priority of both the cities of Greensboro and High Point and of Guilford County government in recent years, and the Greensboro City Council is addressing that issue in the new budget through the Housing GSO Plan, which include support for the “Tenant Education Advocacy Mediation” program, meant to better support renters.

Greensboro drivers can expect to see a lot of “Road Closed” and Detour signs in the coming fiscal year – just as they have in the past: The new budget allocates money to repave 77 street segments during the fiscal year, as well as add 22 miles of water and sewer lines.

The just-adopted budget also continues the downtown Greensboro Hopper trolley service and will provide more frequent service on heavily used Greensboro Transit Agency bus routes.

The new City of Greensboro budget also includes over $10 million in infrastructure and maintenance projects for Bog Garden, Lake Townsend, neighborhood parks and major corridor improvements.

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