As you do your financial planning for the next few years, there’s one large cost that you should plan on: A hefty increase in the property taxes that you pay in Guilford County.

 It’s true that the coming tax increase will come on the heels of 2022, a year when many county residents saw their property tax bills jump 25 or 30 percent as a result of the countywide property revaluation.

In 2022, property values had jumped tremendously from previous years, and that dramatically increased the cost of property tax bills because the Guilford County Board of Commissioners decided not to adjust the tax rate downward to account for the increased property values, but instead decided to leave the tax rate at the same level and take all that newly generated money and spend it.

By not adjusting the rate, the board took in the equivalent of a 14-cent property tax hike per every $100 dollars of assessed property value – thought to be, by far, the largest tax increase in the history of Guilford County.

Even with that extra $92 million dollars coming in each and every year, residents can expect a new tax hike in 2026.  That’s because, the county is having a new revaluation a year earlier than was called for.

Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis said this week that work on the next reevaluation is already going  strong and that it had been for some time.

“Things have leveled off some,” Chavis said when it came to the prices of houses.

 However, he added that property values now reflected on the tax rolls, when compared to actual amounts brought by sales in the real estate market, are on average currently only catching about 70 percent of the true market value of homes, businesses and other property.

However much your home and business property value increases in next year’s revaluation will depend on several factors such as location, market conditions, zoning, comparable sales, any home improvements, etc.

However, given the average prices reflected on the county’s tax books, and the current real estate market, it might be a good guestimate to take your current property tax bill and plan for your 2026 bill – and the bills in the years after that – to be 30 percent higher than the current level.

Guilford County is on a five-year reevaluation cycle so the county wasn’t supposed to have another revaluation until 2027.

However, by state law, after countywide property revaluations, the assessed numbers must be checked against the prices of actual home sales and, if the actual sales are on average less than 20 percent of the county’s values, or more than 20 percent of those values, the county must conduct another revaluation regardless of its actual revaluation schedule.

That’s why Guilford County is having another revaluation – in 2026 – sooner than planned.

Of course, it’s always possible that the current Democrat-majority board, could do what the Republican board did years ago when Guilford County conducted a revaluation and the Republicans were calling the shots. That board adjusted the county’s tax rate downward to a “revenue-neutral” level. That is, they held taxpayers harmless and essentially kept the county revenues – and people’s property tax bills – at the same levels they were before.

While it’s theoretically possible, the current Democrat led board could do that as well next year, since this board took charge from the Republicans four years ago, the current board has shown no inclination to do anything of that sort. Instead, it has shown a strong compulsion to take in as much revenue as it can, give big raises and attractive benefits to all county employees, approve every spending measure county staff brings before it, assume more than $2 billion in bond debt, and grow and grow the county budget year after year.

In the last four years, since the Democrats took over control the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board has increased the county budget by roughly $200 million – more than four times greater than the previous Republican-led Board of Commissioners did in the eight years controlling the board from 2012 to 2020.

And, for Chairman Skip Alston and his loyal band of Democrats, there’s nothing at all that suggests that spending will slow down anytime soon.

Besides, if the board didn’t let these “hidden” tax increases take place, the current commissioners would actually have to take public votes to massively increase the tax rate to pay for all their spending, and they seem to, instead, enjoy a great deal stating proudly, “We have never voted to raise the tax rate!”

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