EMAIL to Town Council Finance Co

To the Town Finance Committee:

In your deliberations, which were very thorough and thoughtful in the examination of line items, you never discussed the macro picture or that the revenue neutral tax rate is 35 cents. (Note: state law requires this figure to be published…it should have been in Corey’s budget proposal to you). Instead the focus of the committee seemed to be that cutting 1/2 cent from 45.5 was the goal. This would amount to around $45,000 out of the $867,000 increase in taxes caused by the 2026 revaluation.

There may be very good reasons to raise taxes by this amount, but after listening to 3 hours of discussions I cannot name them. I suspect that the Provalus project might be a big one, and the audit report of money owed by the general fund to the electric fund which restricts how that money can be spent might also be a factor. The reasons should be spelled out so any taxpayer can understand, and every councilman should be able to discuss and support.

If you intend to raise taxes 28 percent you need to provide to the taxpayers an accounting of what factors caused such a dramatic jump in one year, and should be easily comprehended by any citizen. If this tax rate is enacted along with the county’s above-revenue-neutral rate (their proposal was for 5 more cents, 9% higher,) many town residents will experience an unprecedented, unanticipated blow to their household budgets. If you provide very good justification, citizens may understand even if they disagree.

I am updating the Tax Calculator at robinsams.com to reflect the Edenton proposed tax rate of 455 cents (assuming you eliminate half a cent) along with a county rate of 6025cents. Any citizen can go there and easily find out his new tax. The rates will be updated when any are finalized.

I have done the calculation for each of you and provided a summary below and also added 300 N Oakum, the Habitat built house across from the police station, and my own home. (see Note)

Chowan County reported that sales tax revenues are 10% below expectations. Don’t be surprised if higher property taxes result in lower spending in the local economy as citizens adjust to accommodate higher taxes. My spendable income will drop about $150 a month.

The calculations below assume a town tax rate of .455 and a county rate of .6025. You can see they vary wildly depending on how much of an increase or decrease resulted from revaluation. (Patrick wins highest percentage increase.). I’ve done a bunch of these and generally the houses in the $200-300,000 range seem to have the highest percentage increase. The county’s calculation for revenue neutral can’t be accurate as 90 percent of houses have a tax increase at that rate.

NOTE: I can provide this table to anyone who asks but don't want to seem inflamatory and publish it here. Sellers had the highest increase. the Habitat homeowner was next.

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REPLIES from Councilman Sellers:

From: "Sellers, Patrick" <patrick.sellers@edenton.nc.gov>
Date: June 3, 2026 at 21:15:05 EDT
To: JOHN SAMS <samsjl@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [External] Town Budget/Tax Rate for FY26/27

John,

Thanks for your attendance and input. Hack and myself will be out of town traveling to a wedding next week, and I’ve asked Sambo to speak on the three major reasons for the rise in budget:

1) higher salaries for town employees, these were raised significantly after last year’s salary study. These raises brought us just slightly above average in terms of pay for our town employees. We were woefully lacking. As an example, our starting salary for police officers was over $10,000 a year less than the sheriff’s department offered to new deputies.

2) increased cost of health care for town employees, our cost of insurance is up around $250,000K from last year. We did vote to provide the same services we introduced last year, this was $31,000 than the other proposed plan which took $600 out of each employee’s hands.

3) project teapot, this is an investment, and because we are conservative when it comes to revenue, this budget includes zero dollars in revenue from this venture. We expect a lot out of this investment, and when those funds start coming in, we believe it will pay for itself easily and relatively quickly.

These three things total most of the rise in budget. We want to provide the same, quality services the town has always provided, so cutting services that have become the norm in our wonderful little town were never considered.

Again, thanks for your input and care, it’s appreciated.

Patrick

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From: "Sellers, Patrick" <patrick.sellers@edenton.nc.gov>
Date: June 4, 2026 at 14:58:56 EDT
To: JOHN SAMS <samsjl@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [External] Town Budget/Tax Rate for FY26/27

Salary increases: 232K

Insurance increase: 211K

Teapot: 321K

$764,000 from those 3 combined.

Patrick

Will increasing the spending on these three categories benefit you?