Board of Commissioners — Budget Work Session

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The figure to hold onto is $829.1 million. That is the combined education bond the county expects on the November 2026 ballot, and Taylor put its tax impact at about half a cent, to be levied in 2028. Behind it sit $2.9 billion of proposed school capital funding for 2027 through 2033 and $440 million for Wake Tech. Education already takes 67 percent of the county's debt and capital funding this year: $305.1 million for the school system and $56 million for Wake Tech out of $539.6 million, itself a quarter of the whole budget.

On the county's own side, Taylor listed a detention center expansion at $175 to $200 million, the Wake County Office Park at $200 to $285 million, an $85 million EMS master plan, a $49 million decedent storage facility, a $20 million animal shelter on top of $40 million already committed, and $16 million to finish the sixth floor of the Justice Center, which Deputy County Manager Emily Lucas said will be needed as court capacity grows.

Venditto's context was a county growing 14 percent between 2020 and 2026 and projected to add another 120,238 residents by 2032, reaching 1,405,646. Forty-three percent of the increase between 2020 and 2024 was people over 55, which she said changes both who pays the taxes and who needs services. Single-family permit volume leveled out in 2025. Inflation is 0.4 points below the same time last year, unemployment below the national rate and median income above state and national levels, with tariffs still in effect and the stock market volatile.

Commissioners spent much of the session on questions. Commissioner Adamson asked for a fourth category of resource requests covering unfunded mandates, with their costs and the share paid from property tax. Commissioner Stallings noted that about 220,000 residents receive Medicaid, including about 100,000 children. Vice-Chair Jackson asked for measures of rising need beyond population and age. Adamson called it the toughest revenue budget she had seen, and County Manager David Ellis agreed it would be the hardest to finish but said it would balance. The forecast assumes no property tax rate change in 2027 and puts a penny of the rate at $31.5 million.

The session took no votes. The next one, on April 6, covers capital programs and the decision landscape for the 2027 budget.

How the votes went

The work session took no votes.

From the published minutes.

Who spoke

No members of the public spoke.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.