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The Greensboro Town Council held a public hearing on Tuesday, May 28 on the proposed FY26 general and enterprise budget, through Ordinance 2025-0-3. While the hearing was brief, comments from the lone resident who spoke called into question the transparency of the Council and town employees on this year’s budgetary process.
Mayor David Spencer opened the meeting by reading a prepared statement pertaining to the rules and expectations of decorum at the meeting, including the statement that “it is the duty of the mayor and council to accomplish this business in a reasonably effective and efficient manner. Therefore, disruptions will not be tolerated.” He specifically mentioned that attendees would not be allowed to call out from their seats or use obscene language, or they would be subject to removal from the meeting.
Ordinance 2025-0-3 was introduced on May 8. It establishes a tax rate of “$0.68 per $100 of assessed real property value; $1.513 per $100 on all commercial or business personal property; and $1.40 per $100 on all public utilities.” If passed by the Council, the tax rate and budget are in effect from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
One resident, Amanda Weaver, spoke at the public hearing, and according to Mayor Spencer, she was also the only person to submit questions related to the Ordinance prior to the hearing.
Her first question pertained to the $59,000 line item for “Community Support,” which was Weaver’s previous role in the Town of Greensboro. Mayor Spencer said, “That money is there for that position should the Council decide to fill it at a later date.”
Her second question pertained to an increase in the Public Works Department’s maintenance budget from $39,000 in FY25 to $174,079 in FY26. The increase in the budget “is due to anticipated repairs to some of the streets in town,” Mayor Spencer said.
During her three-minute allotted time to speak during the hearing, Weaver went on to question several individual line items on the budget, such as the Police Department's salaries allotment increasing by only $5,000 despite the Department expressing a desire to bring on a new officer, where the approximately $37,000 additional revenue from Public Works is coming from, and whether new vehicles for Public Works were included in the capital fund, given that the trucks are in disrepair.
Weaver’s questions could be characterized as supporting the idea that the Council provide the public with a comparison of the proposed budget for FY26 against actual expenditures in FY25.
The draft FY26 budget, which can be viewed on the town’s website, shows the anticipated FY26 amount next to what was budgeted for the same item in FY25, but not the true amount spent or revenue gained. Weaver showed dissatisfaction with the fact that the town has not made the exact figures for FY25 available to the public. She called it a “poor” decision on the Council’s part to “remove the actual amount you’ve spent this year from the budget sheets.”
“You guys are working towards clarity and you guys have removed more and more information from the public eye,” she finished.
The Greensboro Town Council will hold its regular meeting on Thursday, June 5, where the vote will be held to adopt Ordinance 2025-0-3 and the proposed FY26 budget.
