06/11/2026
RED ALERT! SB 889 has made its way to Governor Stein's desk. We need him to VETO. Send a letter: tinyurl.com/vetoSB889
Background:
Many of you showed up and showed out last week at the County Commission Budget Public Hearing. The message was clear: We need tax relief AND funding for Guilford County schools and services. We asked Commissioners to adopt the manager's proposed budget, which lowers tax rates for property owners after this year's re-evaluation AND collects new revenue for schools and services.
But this week, SB 889 made its way through committees and all the way to the House floor. The bill is a moratorium on property re-evaluations for this year. It was originally set to affect 12 counties in NC, but 7 have been protected via exemptions or other legislation. Guilford is the largest county affected and has the most to lose.
SB 889, if signed into law, would decimate our local 26-27 budget. Without a revenue increase, our schools literally can't even keep the lights on. We're looking at cuts to public school staffing and programs, no raises for even our lowest paid public school workers, and cuts to county services too.
On top of all that, a one-year moratorium only provides temporary "relief" to property owners, delaying the inevitable property re-evaluation and promising an even higher tax hike when it does finally come.
This legislation, championed by John Blust and Alan Branson, is targeted, malicious, and meant to disenfranchise a specific local government that corporate-funded privatizers in the legislature see as "too liberal."
Send your letter today: tinyurl.com/vetoSB889
