For the second time in two years, Macon County voters have rejected the implementation of a quarter-cent sales tax to bolster funding for local public schools. However, the margin of defeat for the referendum is shrinking. 

In the second split budget vote in the last four years, Waynesville’s Town Council approved a property tax hike of 3.98 cents to address mounting capital needs and maintain competitive employee compensation packages meant to reduce costly turnover. 

A full year after one of the county’s largest employers — the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill, in downtown Canton — shut its doors, Canton’s governing board adopted a conservative budget for fiscal year 2024-25 that contains no property tax increase. 

Commissioners voted unanimously June 3 to accept Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead’s proposed annual budget which, in spite of inflation, forthcoming debt for a jail expansion and the loss of a major employer last year, contains no tax increase.

Jackson County is set to approve its budget next week, funding county operations for the coming fiscal year without a tax increase for residents. 

The Town of Sylva will not see a tax increase for the coming budget cycle, but with work looming on N.C. 107, staff are preparing for falling revenues over the next two to four years. 

With jail expansion debt payments coming on the books and lingering questions about one of the county’s biggest taxpayers, Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead presented commissioners with a conservative budget that funds some critical needs, but not much else. 

The Haywood County Tax Assessors Office is currently conducting a comprehensive reappraisal of all properties within the county for the 2025 tax year.

When filing a state tax return this year, North Carolina workers can support research and conservation management projects by donating some or all of their tax refund to the N.C. Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Fund. 

The proposed 2023-24 Fiscal Year general fund budget for Jackson County totals just over $88.1 million, an increase of about 5.9% over the current fiscal year amended budget. It is balanced with a tax rate of $0.38 per $100 of value.