Buncombe residents press commissioners on schools, taxes at budget hearing
Residents pressed Buncombe commissioners to protect schools without pushing taxes higher, as the county weighed a 43.52-cent property rate and a $485.1 million budget.
More than two dozen Buncombe County residents used a May 19 public hearing to warn commissioners that the county’s next budget could either help schools or deepen the pressure on homeowners already shaken by reassessment and storm recovery costs.
Education funding drew the loudest concern. Budget Director John Hudson laid out the county’s recommended fiscal year 2027 plan, and school supporters said the county still needed to do more for Buncombe County Schools and Asheville City Schools. County figures show that fully meeting the education requests discussed at the hearing would require another 0.79 cents on the property tax rate, a number that pushed the debate from general support for schools into a direct argument over who pays.
That tradeoff is steep. Buncombe’s recommended property tax rate is 43.52 cents per $100 of assessed value, compared with a revenue-neutral rate of 39.22 cents. County officials say the 2026 reappraisal increased the tax base by 43 percent, and the proposed rate would leave homeowners paying above the level needed to keep county revenue flat after the reassessment. For a county already dealing with post-Helene economic strain, that gap became the center of the public frustration in the room.
The proposed general fund budget stands at $485.1 million and includes $137.3 million for education, $106.5 million for public safety and $100.3 million for human services. The plan also adds $11.1 million in K-12 funding, 32 new county positions and a 2.71 percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees. Commissioners were scheduled to take formal budget action on June 2, after the May 19 hearing and four budget work sessions earlier in the spring.
The budget fight comes after an earlier May 5 presentation that drew strong opposition, with one report saying none of the 11 speakers backed the spending plan. Many of those objections centered on the same point raised again at the hearing: the county’s reassessment, tax burden and school obligations are colliding at once.
That tension has been building since Buncombe cut almost $4.7 million from Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools in a post-Helene budget reduction. School advocates have argued that those cuts weakened staffing and program stability, while county officials continue to balance education requests against public safety, human services and broader financial planning. The county’s School Capital Fund Commission and Article 39 sales-tax process also remain part of the longer fight over how school capital needs get funded.
For Buncombe taxpayers, the coming vote will set both classroom funding and household bills for the July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 budget year.
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