The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted on June 3 to adopt a $2,082,579,000 budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which runs from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.

It invests in public safety, affordable housing and child welfare to meet state mandates and address the impacts of growth. It also heavily supports education, with 54% of the funds going towards Wake County Public Schools, Wake Tech and Smart Start.

Additional Investments

The adopted budget increases funding in two areas:

• Wake County Public Schools – County Manager David Ellis initially recommended increasing the investment in WCPSS by $49 million. The board added $9,345,000 million more, bringing the total increase in funding for WCPSS over FY2024 to more than $58.3 million, which meets Superintendent Robert Taylor’s funding request. This brings the county’s total investment in the school system’s operating budget to $702.6 million for FY2025.
• Legal Support Center – Manager Ellis last month proposed increasing the county’s investment in the Legal Support Center by $31,000. The commissioners voted to provide an additional $80,000 to the center to expand its hours and hire more staff to assist residents who can’t afford an attorney and need help navigating the justice system.
   

Impacts on the Property Tax

The commissioners approved funding these additions to the FY2025 budget by raising the property tax rate by 0.3 cents to 51.35 cents per $100 of valuation. A resident who owns a $462,000 home, which is roughly the median assessed value in Wake County, will receive a tax bill of $2,372 this year.

The effect of the new tax rate depends on how each individual taxpayer’s property value changed during the Jan. 1, 2024, revaluation, when our Tax Administration staff updated all the property values in Wake County. As a result, some will see their tax bill increase. Others will pay less in taxes in FY2025.

Fire Tax Rate Adopted

The FY2025 budget decreases the fire tax from 12.27 cents to 10.75 cents per $100 of property value for households in the Fire Tax Special District. It funds fire services in the unincorporated areas of the county and in the Town of Wendell.

The fire tax not only ensures a continued prompt response in rural communities during emergencies, but it also provides firefighters with equipment that works well and keeps them safe.

The FY2025 Budget includes:

• Deploying 10 more ambulances to the roads, along with the EMTs and paramedics to staff them, to meet the rising demand for emergency medical care.
   
• Adding 16 law enforcement officers to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office patrol unit to address an increase in calls and ensure there are enough staff available to respond when more than one deputy is needed on scene.
   
• Adding seven new positions to our Child Welfare Program to help keep children safe, recruit more foster families and place more youth in stable, permanent homes.
   
• Increasing funding for WakeBrook, a local behavioral health crisis response facility, by $3 million to support 24/7 crisis stabilization, non-hospital detox and inpatient treatment.
   
• Increasing ongoing support for our Affordable Housing Development Program by $4.5 million to help achieve our goal of creating and preserving 2,500 affordable housing units by 2029.
   
• Adding the staff and resources needed to open Beech Bluff County Park and Kellam-Wyatt County Park in FY2025 to increase access to nature, educational opportunities and fitness for all our residents.
   
• Enhancing access to our library system by replacing our bookmobile, adding more titles to our digital book collection, increasing the number of books available in non-English languages, and implementing assistive technology to better serve people with disabilities or who speak languages other than English.