SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners approved the budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Monday, holding to the current property tax rate and 10-percent decrease from the current year budget.

County Manager Aaron Church did bring a few changes to his recommended budget before the board, including a request for $900,000 to increase the salary supplements by one percent for the Rowan-Salisbury School System.

“The school system was asking us if we’ll try to work towards 12 percent. We’re currently at eight (percent), so what we’re doing is moving this to nine (percent) now and we’re hoping to move, each year, closer to that,” said Chairman Greg Edds.

When added to contributions to the Rowan-Cabarrus YMCA and Rowan Helping Ministries, Church’s recommended budget was increased by approximately $920,000 on Monday. The funding for those expenses came from a fund balance appropriation of $922,802.

That addition brings the total budget for the county’s general fund to approximately $216 million, down just under 10 percent from the previous year. 

Part of the reasoning for what Church has called a “conservative” estimate for the budget was that the sales tax revenue is projected to remain the same as last year. Church said that the state recommended that counties and municipalities consider a one or two-percent increase. 

He added during the budget presentation at a previous meeting that if the zero-percent growth projection holds true, tough decisions will need to be made in 2026.

“If we’re correct in our projection that it’s zero percent, next year will be a really bad year. In order to keep moving forward the way we are currently providing service to the citizens and spending, the tax rate will have to be increased or additional employees will have to be eliminated from the budget,” said Church during the May 19 meeting.

Commissioners echoed Church’s sentiments about this year being a tough year to balance the budget during the meeting on Monday.

“I appreciate the folks that come out and address the problems the community has. I agree that there’s a problem. But there’s just only so much money. We could tax everybody and take care of all these programs, and then we’d watch everybody move out of here because it’s too expensive to live here, and that’s what I don’t want to see,” said Commissioner Craig Pierce.

Only one person spoke during the public hearing, with Bobby Kemp stating that he was disappointed in the lack of programs or initiatives aimed at assisting the senior, disabled and veteran populations.

“I realize what you’re up against, you only have so much money to work with and the need is so great. I really do see that and understand, but the need is so great for our veterans, our seniors and our disabled with some of the help that they need,” said Kemp, who recently announced his candidacy for a seat on the Board of Commissioners.

The budget also includes the implementation of recommendations from a pay study that looked at the public safety department. The study recommended that the county make pay grade changes to raise wages and make them more competitive, bring all employees up to the minimum of their new pay grade, implement four percent in-grade progressions for employees along with $500 in-grade progressions and an in-grade adjustment between zero and three percent based on the employee’s length of service with the county.

Between other salary increases, healthcare increases and other employee-related costs, Church said that the total employee investment this fiscal year would increase by approximately $4.4 million.

“When we ran for office, it’s the same for Craig (Pierce) and Mike (Caskey) when they ran, we were a training ground for employees. We would hire folks, train them here, and off they would go to Cabarrus County or Winston-Salem or Davidson County or Davie County or Stanly County because they can drive there,” said Edds. “We had the worst possible scenario being the training ground, and our turnover was really high.

“We had to right that ship, and so our budget this year is considerably higher than it was in 2014, 2015, and most has gone to people, personnel, making sure that our folks are competitive.”

For education, the budget includes a 3.5-percent increase in per-pupil spending to approximately $2,411. The state no longer provides counties with estimates for average daily membership, or attendance, so the school systems now provide their own. Rowan-Salisbury Schools estimated a decrease of 134, Kannapolis City School estimated a decrease of 32 and local charter schools estimated an increase of 532.

The budget does not include much in the way of capital expenditures with the total capital expenditures being $602,000 spread across six items such as a new playground for Sloan Park and HVAC repairs for various county departments.

The budget does include new debt payments for the purchase of a new train for Dan Nicholas Park after the previous trains broke down and one crashed. The train was being purchased via loan, with the debt payments working out to an annual payment of $407,616. The total cost was approximately $1.7 million.

Several departments do have their fees increased in the budget, which Church said were mainly to keep up with inflation. Departments with fee increases include the tax assessors office and the planning department for printing, emergency services for emergency and nonemergency transportation, environmental health for permit and testing fees, health for dental and clinic fees and animal services for rabies vaccines and health certificates.