The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners reviewed current property values, heard education requests, and more during its budget work session on April 16 as work continues to create the fiscal year 2027 budget, which runs from July 1, 2026-June 30, 2027. Commissioners have yet to set a property tax rate, and no official actions were taken regarding property tax rates during this work session.

Property values
To comply with state law, Buncombe County was required to complete a reappraisal in 2026, which updated property tax values for use in fiscal year 2027. The recent reappraisal will help with equalization and fairness as the last values were five years old. Based on this reappraisal, 92% of the County’s property tax base is comprised of residential properties with commercial properties representing 6% and the final 2% coming from other types of properties. Regarding the value of those properties, commercial properties make up about 25% of value thanks to hotels and apartments with residential accounting for the upward of 75% of value. For fiscal year 2027, all values are still estimated as the appeals process is still open until May 5 and values are not officially finalized.

Looking at property values, fiscal year 2027’s estimated assessed real property value is $68.6 billion after the reappraisal, up from $45.6 billion for the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, personal property is at an estimated $3.2 billion, down from $3.4 billion for the current fiscal year. Post-reappraisal, Buncombe County is looking at an estimated $76.8 billion in all property tax values, which is up from $53.6 billion for the current fiscal year. Total revenue for the current fiscal year’s value equals $293,034,735 based on the property tax rate of 54.66-cents per $100 of assessed value. In a calculation of the same amount of revenue based on fiscal year 2027’s projected value, a revenue-neutral tax rate would be 39.22-cents. Taking into account the 2.74% property growth rate, late interest fees, and assuming a 100% collection rate, property tax revenue would be $301,948,864 at the revenue-neutral rate.

Commissioners are still considering the property tax rate and will not officially set that rate until the budget is adopted, which is slated to happen during their formal meeting on June 2. Community members can provide feedback on the proposed budget during the public hearing, which is scheduled for May 19.

Revenues
County staff presented updated revenues for the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget that would total $446 million. The breakdown of that funding is as follows:

• $299.7 million in property tax, 67% of revenue
• $49.5 million in local option sales tax, 11% of revenue
• $45.8 million in intergovernmental fees, 10% of revenue
• $25 million from sales and services, 6% of revenues
• $7.5 million from permits and fees, 2% of revenue
• $6.9 million in other taxes and licenses, 2% of revenue
• $6.6 million from other revenue, 1% of revenue
• $5 million from interfund transfers, 1% of revenue

The property tax revenue would be a $12.5 million increase from the current fiscal year’s amended property tax revenue budget and associated interest at revenue-neutral tax rate. While sales tax is projected to have a 3% increase, the one-time $4.1 million appropriation of Article 39 sales tax from the School Capital Fund to the General Fund to help pay for school operating expenses means that there will actually be less Sales Tax revenue by about $116,000 next year. 

To see more breakdowns of the revenue streams, you can view the full presentation made to Commissioners.

Solid Waste fees
The Solid Waste Department is requesting a fee change that would add a $3.50 increase to the tonnage fee with no residential bag fee increase. Projections show the requested increase Solid Waste revenue by $1.3 million. The proposed per-ton increase would be $53.50 for the landfill and $63.50 for the transfer station.

Expenditure changes since March 24 Work Session
County staff has updated projected expenditures since the last budget work session on March 24. The new numbers feature a decrease of $17.4 million from the previously reviewed requests based on the following:

• $9.4 million in lapsed salary reduction
• $2.8 million in reduced department operating budgets
• $2 million in reduced recommended positions from 37 to 32 and staggered starting dates
• $1.7 million reduction with updated debt service estimates
• $1.5 million reduction in economic development transfer

Additionally, some money spent on Helene-based recovery projects still has not been reimbursed by FEMA. FEMA obligated $37.5 million to Buncombe County and so far, $25.3 million of that has been received from the federal government, leaving a $19.4 million gap. In all, the County has spent $31.1 million on recovery efforts.

Homeowner Grant update
Commissioners are looking at modifications to the Buncombe County Homeowner Grant program. To continue the program as-is  would cost $280,000 plus an estimated $140,000 in staff time. Several options were provided and the option that Commissioners seemed to favor would be to discontinue the program and transfer its funding to Health and Human Services general assistance programs that help individuals with various needs while increasing the number of eligible recipients. That option would cost $50,000 in contract costs but would have savings through not reassigning staff from various departments to administer the program.

Commissioners did not make any decisions about the program’s future during the work session – that will be part of the overall budget approval.

Education requests
Buncombe County’s budget traditionally has education as its highest expenditure. For the current budget year, the County allocated $125.9 million, or 29% of funding, to education. For the proposed FY27 budget, education is again poised to be the largest expenditure with an overall request of $137.3 million, which is an increase in spending of $11.4 million from the current budget. That money goes to Asheville City and Buncombe County school systems and A-B Tech Community College. The proposed funding amount for the K-12 systems is calculated as37.76% of 12 months prior property tax and local sales tax.

During the work session, A-B Tech and the Asheville City Schools district made presentations and funding requests to Commissioners.

The Asheville City Schools district is asking for an increase to its supplemental tax rate to help pay for exceptional children funding needs, summer school, after-school programs, and more. The requested rate is 10 cents with the revenue-neutral rate being 8.14 cents, which would provide a $585,000 increase in funding due to natural growth of the property tax base. Commissioners did not make any decisions on the Asheville City Schools’ supplemental tax rate –  that will happen during the budget’s formal adoption. For more details, you can view the full ACS presentation to Commissioners.

A-B Tech is looking at an increase in funding of $300,000 bringing the County’s total contribution to $8.7 million. The community college says a breakdown of that funding is as follows:

• 47.6% toward salaries and benefits
• 33.4% toward services, supplies, and materials
• 19% for utilities

A-B Tech is asking for a continuation of the sales tax known as Article 46, which is set to expire in 2027. Funding from Article 46 covers capital improvements, and as of 2019, state statute modified the use so some money can also go toward operational needs. The sales tax has created $160 million in revenue for the school (as of June 2025) and has helped fund several projects such as:

• $26 million for buildings, renovations, and repairs
• $46 million for principal retirement
• $31 million for interest and fees
• $40 million toward operations

The school says future needs, based on a 10-year facilities master plan, that Article 46 would help cover include about $283 million in projects broken down into $154 million in repairs and renovations and $129 million for new construction. Commissioners did not make any formal action on this request regarding Article 46 sales tax and this would require legislative action. For more details, you can view the A-B Tech presentation to Commissioners, starting on slide number 51.

Next steps
For more details on today’s budget work session, you can view the entire presentation staff made to Commissioners. Commissioners and staff will hold one more budget work session on April 28 ahead of presenting the recommended budget on May 5 with final budget approval slated for June 2 at the Commissioners’ regularly scheduled meeting. The Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the budget on May 19.

You can stay up to date with the budget process on the County’s website and can view all budget meetings via the County’s Facebook page.