Guilford County finalizes $840M budget

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has adopted an $840 million budget for the next fiscal year. 

The budget totals $37 million more than last year. But county residents won’t see that increase reflected in their tax bills — a feat commissioners applauded at Thursday's meeting. 

“It is a lot of work to encompass a plan with such robust progress into a budget with no tax increase," said Commissioner Carly Cooke. "And we know that that's what we needed to do this year because many in our community couldn't be stretched any further.”

The budget includes major funding boosts for education and health care. $15.4 million will go towards raises for classified employees at Guilford County Schools. Another million will fund 10 new school nurse positions in the district.  

And $5M was allocated to pay for new positions at the health department to prepare for the expansion of Medicaid. In a statement, the county noted that an additional 200,000 Guilford County residents are expected to qualify for Medicaid under the expansion.

The new budget will go into effect on July 1.