News

Commissioners raise property taxes after 5-hour meeting

Henderson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bill Lapsley holds up a copy the county’s proposed 2026-2027 budget during a meeting with other board members on Wednesday.

By Amy McCraw, Published: June 4, 2026

Commissioners raised taxes in Henderson County Wednesday night when they approved a $244.8 million budget that includes pay raises for sheriff’s deputies and teachers while also funding debt service to the county’s courthouse and detention center building project.

“If law enforcement doesn’t protect you and you are dead, it doesn’t matter how good a library you have,” Michael Edney, the vice chairman of the county’s board of commissioners, said shortly before the board’s unanimous vote to raise the tax rate 4.3 cents from 43.1 cents to 47.4 cents per $100 of property valuation.
The remaining board members also defended the tax increase ahead of their vote during a 5-hour meeting at the county’s Historic Courthouse on Main Street.
Commissioner Rebecca McCall said the tax increase amounts to an additional $4 per week for someone owning a $400,000 home.
“I’ll not buy one of those fancy coffees I like to have,” she said.
Commissioner Jay Egolf said the board had talked about a 5-cent tax increase after hearing a presentation recently about the county’s $170 million JCAR project that includes a jail addition and new four-story courthouse building.
“We have done what we can do to lessen this,” Egolf said. “I think we are doing a great job of managing our money.”
Commissioner Sheila Franklin said the vote was a difficult decision while Chairman Bill Lapsley said he wished the board did not have to raise taxes.
“It is what it is,” he said.
County Manager John Mitchell in May presented a $227.2 million fiscal year 2026-27 budget that kept the tax rate at 43.1 cents per $100 valuation. It included more than $9 million in debt service to the JCAR project that was paid for through the county’s capital reserve fund.
But Commissioners in their vote on Wednesday decided to fund the debt service through increased property taxes instead.
When they voted no on a $100 million expansion of the courthouse in March, Egolf and Franklin said they feared the project and its $10 million a year debt service would lead to a need to raise property taxes.
In the vote on Wednesday, commissioners also approved using $2 million of the capital reserve fund to cover solid waste costs in the county. That money will be spent in lieu of residents paying a $45 fee for solid waste, Mitchell said during a break in the meeting.
The budget Mitchell presented in May also included a 3 percent across-the-board cost of living bump. Since then, leaders of the state legislature in Raleigh have announced a deal on a budget that delivers a big pay raise to law enforcement agencies.
In response to the state budget, Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin last week requested an 18 percent pay increase, projected to cost $4 million, for sheriff’s deputies and jail guards
The sheriff’s proposed pay package could require a property tax increase, a drawdown of the fund balance below the county’s self-imposed minimum or substantial cuts somewhere else.
Commissioners vote to raise property taxes on Wednesday funded the sheriff’s request.
Mitchell said during the break in the meeting that $20 million FEMA still owes the county for its response to Hurricane Helene complicated the budget picture.
The county continues to work with the federal agency to receive reimbursement for its expenses during the hurricane.
Among other jobs and projects, the budget commissioners approved also includes a 1 percent supplemental pay increase for Henderson County Public Schools teachers totaling $1.2 million. Several people who spoke during the public comment time before commissioners began discussing the budget spoke in favor of increasing support to the school system.