Last year, Macon County Schools requested a nearly $2 million budget increase to fund additional staff positions. When the pandemic shuttered school doors during budget season last year, the request was dropped. But now, over a year into the pandemic, MCS has again requested the money to fill staffing needs within its schools. 

Longtime Franklin Manager Summer Woodard will be leaving for a new job in June, but before she goes, she presented her final budget proposal to the town council. 

Although the recommended budget won’t be presented for another two weeks, Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead took the opportunity on May 3 to present commissioners with a picture of what it might look like — on the heels of a historic revaluation that saw property values increase by nearly 20 percent countywide.

Haywood County Schools Local Expense Budget is set to look very similar to years past, with the COVID-19 Pandemic causing only a few exceptions. 

In preparing for Haywood Community College’s first post-pandemic budget, President Dr. Shelley White presented a stable operating budget but asked for substantial capital spending in line with the school’s growth.

The Town of Canton’s property tax rate hasn’t changed in almost two decades. This year, it looks to be headed down, but residents will still see slightly higher bills as a result of a countywide property revaluation that’s on average 24 percent higher.

Despite the dire predictions of spring 2020, Jackson County’s budget prognosis for the 2021-2022 fiscal year is looking downright positive, commissioners learned during a Feb. 23 budget retreat. 

Maggie Valley town officials are cautiously optimistic about the coming budget year after preliminary reports show the pandemic did not have the devastating financial effect many had originally feared.

Despite dire predictions of how local governments would be financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Macon County has fared well so far. Still, County Manager Derek Roland recently ensured commissioners that he’d continue to manage the budget conservatively moving into the 2021-22 fiscal year.