By Connie Leinbach
Hyde County’s 2025-2026 budget does not include an increase in the property tax rate but it includes the levying of fees for disposing of household and business trash.
The budget, as discussed in Hyde County Manager Kris Cahoon Noble’s budget message, seeks “an availability fee of $180 per year for improved residential structures and $400 per year for improved commercial structures.”
“Improved” means an occupiable building, according to Donnie Shumate, Hyde County Public Information Officer.
A second budget hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday (June 5) is open to the public and will be broadcast in the Ocracoke Community Center where citizens can make comments in person.
The hearing will be livestreamed on Hyde County’s Facebook page, but viewers will not be able to send comments. Written or email comments will be accepted via the form on the Hyde County website.
Adoption of the new budget and setting of the tax rate for 2025-2026 will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, June 12.
In the proposed balanced budget, total revenues and expenses are projected at $24.25 million and the property tax rate will remain at $0.92 per $100 of property valuation.
The estimated expenses for solid waste are $1.34 million, up from $1.22 million last year.
In the “restricted-other” revenue section of the budget, these proposed “availability” fees are estimated to yield $741,531.
The budget message says North Carolina law allows counties to provide solid waste collection and disposal services under a public enterprise authority and that the fees may cover the cost of waste management.
The estimated revenues from the proposed user fees will go into a Solid Waste Public Enterprise Fund, the budget message says.
At the Hyde County commissioners meeting June 2, two mainland residents questioned these new fees, and one asked what “improved” structures meant and Noble said their questions will be answered at the hearing on Thursday.
A draft Solid Waste Ordinance has been added to the county’s website. The solid waste information is here.
In Hyde County building report the county has 8,266 total parcels and of those 3,778 are improved.
The budget message further says that these fees will be evaluated later in the year with public input on a fee structure that “should be based on usage and should relieve the tax burdens to those individuals that are not heavy users of solid waste services. This will be the first step towards a more equitable distribution of solid waste expenses that reflect usage of the services.”
The waste usage fee would be billed with the property taxes.
The budget also calls for implementation of other “fees for services based on use” and a master fee schedule will be prepared and also will be posted on the county website.
This budget also proposes the cost-saving measure of consolidating the EMS and fire services “under the umbrella of” the sheriff’s department to create a new Public Safety Department.
The sheriff department also will take oversight of the Hyde County Airport and will complete construction and implement the Drone Advancement project, which will refine the use of drone technology for public services.
She noted that four additional EMS positions are needed “to ensure there are no instances where coverage is not adequate and to eliminate overtime from our budget, stabilizing work schedules and expenditures.”
Noble also proposes restructuring the Finance Department to create a tax collector and a tax assessor position. The Tax collector would address the “unacceptable amount of prior year tax collections and the assessor position will “result in better tax data, land records and a reduced cost for revaluations since much of this work would come in house instead of under an outside contractor.
Noble also proposes to reinstate a Planning and Economic Development Department to reinvigorate economic development and oversee all of the grants the county seeks. She says, in the budget message, that this can be achieved through restructuring existing resources without and overall cost to the county.”
In other budget highlights, revenue from the Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT), which is afforded to government entities, such as the National Park Service, is estimated to yield$129,200, up from the actual of $2,614 collected this year and down from a budgeted amount last year of $136,700.
A few agencies outside of Hyde County ask for funds, but Noble’s message says that while these requests are listed online, the county cannot afford to fund these requests.
