County Commissioners Move Forward with Proposed Property Tax Rate Decrease

DENTON – Continuing a discussion that started at a recent fiscal year 2027 budget public hearing, the Caroline County Commissioners directed the finance department to reconfigure the projected FY27 county budget based on a tax rate of .96 instead of the current .98 rate.

Commission President Travis Breeding first proposed asking Stacey Seward with the finance office to rework the FY27 budget with a .96 tax rate to see what the numbers work out to be, asking the other Commissioners how they would feel about issuing that directive. Commissioner Larry Porter said he was able to balance the FY27 budget with the two-cent reduction on the capital side. He said it would work out to about a $700,000 reduction. “I think we can handle the capital reduction [with] what we have being carried over each year,” he said.

All three Commissioners agreed to have the proposed budget revised with the two-cent property tax rate decrease, and revisit budgetary discussions at next week’s Commissioners meeting. The idea of the decrease came from a conversation at last week’s budget hearing, during which Commissioner Breeding noted that the county saw about $2 million in revenue growth last fiscal year and is projected to see similar growth this year, and the Commissioners would like to try to counteract rising state-issued tax assessments.

Seward said that since the tax rate is not increasing, the Commissioners are not required to hold a specific public hearing on the matter, but the tax rate must be decided by the next public budget hearing scheduled for May 5, 2026.