Allen Vann, who was named county manager last July, led his first budget meeting for the Board of Commissioners Monday night, and promised that the 2026-27 budget will not include any property tax increase.
During the pre-budget workshop, as he termed it, Vann gave an overview of the proposed budget so far, and emphasized, “This is the starting point for the budget and no final decisions regarding funding will be made today. The purpose is to confirm the board’s goals and provide vital information.”
As part of the nearly three-hour meeting, Vann reviewed the strategic goals the board adopted after the approval of last year’s budget and shared the key priorities of the upcoming budget. Those strategic goals are: excellent government, safe communities, public education, growth in infrastructure, healthy community, economic development, and relations and connections. The commissioners were in agreement that they wanted to stick with those goals during this budgeting process.
Next up, he reviewed the budget guidance that the board adopted last year, which sets priorities for the coming fiscal year. “First of all, there will be no general property tax increase,” Vann stated. “That was number one on the list, and we know that we have to live by that.”
The county will also fully fund the public education funding formula that was adopted by both the Clinton City and Sampson County Boards of Education, as well as the commissioners. The formula stipulates that the county will provide the school systems with 25 percent of its revenue to help improve per-pupil spending.
In order to recruit and retain highly qualified employees and increase investment in employee pay, a 3-percent COLA and a one-time $500 bonus will be awarded to all full-time employees, Vann stipulated.
“Any increases in staffing and general fund departments shall be offset by equivalent cuts to recurring expenditures within the total combined general fund departments or alternatively, are grant funded,” Vann stated.
Fire tax rates will also follow the 2025 Fire and Rescue Services Agreement Amendment, and will include any recommendations from the county’s fire commission.
Another key component of the 2026-27 budget will be the county’s contract with GFL for convenience centers, which expires June 30. “That has the potential to have a significant impact on us,” Vann shared. “Basically, you’re looking at $1.2 million annually that we would have to find, which we’ve had to factor into the budget for the last couple of years.”
He added that the county is in negotiations with GFL, and he hoped there would be a meeting within the next few days.
The new Hobbton High School construction will also take a portion of the next budget. Vann shared that Sampson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jamie King had talked with him about a potential $6.5 million to $10 million shortfall. “I asked him if they had done as much as they could in the way of trying to get a project within the money that they had allotted,” Vann said. “He explained to me that they have done pretty much as much value engineering as they can at this time, and he said they had also cut some square footage out of the project from what they had originally started with to do so.”
The total amount of the shortfall won’t be known until the bids are received in May, but Vann said he wanted commissioners to be aware that might be a sticking point in the budget process.
Human Resources Director Nancy Dillman made a presentation to the board, highlighting anticipated health insurance cost increases and the potential impacts that will have on the department’s budget. She also shared turnover information, as well as how the costs of a COLA and bonus might be addressed.
Between January and February this year, the county gained 18 new employees, five of whom were returning after being employed elsewhere, Dillman said. During the same time period, however, the county lost 13 employees, 22 are out on family medical leave, and five are out on workers compensation.
As of Monday, there were a total of 553 full-time employees in the county, and 26 vacancies. For more on Dillman’s report, see Saturday’s issue.
Also at Monday night’s meeting, Department of Social Services Director Patty Santos and Health Department Director Wanda Robinson shared the impacts that the Big Beautiful Bill will have on the services their departments provide locally.
Santos shared that administrative cost share for Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) is 50 percent federal and 50 percent county. “Effective this year on Oct. 1, that number moves to federal, 25 percent and county, 75 percent,” she stated. “Another big change is the benefit cost share — that is the actual amount that’s placed on the EBT card, the funds that are being used by the participants for purchasing food. Currently, that is funded 100 percent federal. There is no [county] contribution to that.”
Starting in 2027, the benefit cost share will be determined by the SNAP payment error rate. She explained that the payment error rate, or PER, is “the total value of the overpayments and underpayments divided by the total value of payments distributed for a given fiscal year.”
The PERs are driven by county or client mistakes, either when reporting or entering data into the system. Those with a 6 percent or lower PER will not have to fund the benefit cost share. However, if the PER is between 6-8 percent, the cost would be $1 million; between 8-10 percent, it would increase to $2.1 million; and over 10 percent, $3.26 million.
Santos added that with all of the policy changes in FNS, the number of errors will likely increase as clients and employees get used to the changes.
The Health Department receives a portion of its funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Medicaid, both of which are facing cuts in federal funding.
“The Centers for Disease Control, for fiscal year 2026, we have our number of vaccines reduced to seven from 11,” Robinson shared. “This is concerning to us, because you can see we have now what is called shared clinical decison making. How we give vaccines now, we are to talk with the parent, let them know the costs, benefits and side effects, and they make that decision if they want that vaccine or not.”
Because the CDC no longer recommends certain vaccines, like influenza, hepatitis, COVID-19, RSV and meningitis, the Health Department can no longer bill a third party and insurance for the vaccines.
As people are taken off Medicaid, she continued, “It will impact us in the county, as far as billing.”
Currently, nearly half of the Health Department’s patients are self-pay, on a sliding scale. The cost for those patients ends up being zero, usually, Robinson said. In that case, the department relies on Medicaid and insurance reimbursements for revenue. With fewer patients on Medicaid, it computes to more self-pay patients, meaning fewer patients actually paying for their care.
Later in the meeting, Economic Development Director Ray Jordan also talked with the board about infrastructure needs for attracting business and industry to the county. See more about that aspect of the upcoming budget in Saturday’s print edition.