What your bill reflects — and what is on the November 3 ballot

Our Piedmont Education Foundation · Guilford County & the Piedmont Triad · Originally published June 2026 · Updated September 1, 2026

The same five concerns run through this site: property taxes · schools · public safety · housing · spending.

In three minutes

• Who decided the 2026 Guilford rate: the Board of Commissioners, on June 25, 2026.
• Who decides the three statewide amendments: statewide voters on November 3. The levy-limit amendment caps growth in a local government’s total property-tax revenue, not one household’s bill. The income-tax question drops the constitutional ceiling from 7% to 3.5%; it does not by itself cut today’s 3.99% statutory rate.
• What you can do before November 3: confirm registration by October 9 at 5 p.m.; early vote October 15–31; request an absentee ballot beginning September 4. Head-to-head cards for the Triad races are at voter-guides.php.
• What you can do on this year’s bill: Guilford property owners may appeal the FY2027 bill — the one based on 2025 values — through December 31.
• If you have a hearing to attend: bring this brief. The adopted rate, the moratorium, and the three amendments are the public record you will hear argued. We wrote it to be carried.

1. Top voter concerns

Across Guilford and contiguous counties (Alamance, Forsyth, Randolph, Rockingham, and others), the same interconnected issues keep surfacing:

• Property taxes. The leading concern, driven by 2026 reappraisals. A March 2026 Carolina Journal poll found 76.8% of respondents call property taxes a burden on their household budget. In Guilford, the immediate effect of those new values was postponed a year; the rate still moved.
• Education funding and school quality. Teacher pay, school performance, discipline, state policy shifts such as private-school vouchers, and the gap between what the county manager proposed for Guilford County Schools in May and what the adopted June budget could fund after SB 889.
• Crime, public safety, and jail conditions. Gun violence, jail staffing shortages, inmate safety, and deputy recruitment and retention. WFMY reported in July 2026 that the sheriff’s office was about $3.9 million over its overtime line with roughly 80 vacancies. The sheriff’s race is on the November ballot.
• Affordable housing and growth. Housing costs and development pressure as the Triad grows. More than half of Triad homes are considered cost-burdened.
• Local government spending and transparency. A desire for focus on core services and clearer accounting of where tax dollars go.

2. The property-tax legislation — and what happened after June

Two related bills in the 2025–26 General Assembly session responded to the top concern. They work on different timelines. Both are now law.

HB 1089, Const. Amend. Property Tax Levy Limit (Session Law 2026-5). Signed May 21, 2026. It places a constitutional amendment on the November 3, 2026 statewide ballot. If voters approve, the General Assembly would have to enact a “levy limit” capping how much a local government’s total property-tax revenue can grow each year, with exceptions still to be written into implementing law. The ballot question reads: “Constitutional amendment requiring limits on property tax increases by local governments.” The bill was a recommendation of the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform, with primary sponsors Reps. Echevarria (R-Cabarrus), Howard (R-Davie), Setzer (R-Catawba), and Pare (R-Wake).

SB 889, property reappraisal moratorium. Signed by Gov. Josh Stein on June 19, 2026. It keeps 2026 reappraisal values off the 2026 bill in affected counties, including Guilford. That is why this year’s Guilford bill is calculated on 2025 assessed values. County officials say the 2026 values apply to the 2027 bill, when commissioners will set a new rate against that larger base.

Two other statewide amendments sit on the same ballot. SB 1080 / Session Law 2026-4 asks voters to drop the constitutional income-tax ceiling from 7% to 3.5% beginning with tax years on or after January 1, 2027. The statutory personal rate is already 3.99% and scheduled to fall further if revenue triggers are met; the amendment does not cut today’s rate by itself. A third amendment would put photo ID in the constitution for every method of voting, including mail. In-person photo ID is already statute. Greensboro voters also decide an $11.5 million parks-and-recreation bond (about $18.3 million with interest as printed on the ballot). Head-to-head notes for all four questions are on ballot-measures.php.

3. What the adopted Guilford budget actually did

On June 25, 2026, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners adopted an $889,196,646 General Fund budget for FY2027 and set the property-tax rate at 78.95 cents per $100 of assessed value, an increase of 5.9 cents from the prior year. The county’s adoption release estimates that increase as $8.44 more per month for a home at the county’s stated median value of $171,600.

That adopted plan is not the plan written in May. Before SB 889, the county manager’s recommended General Fund was $935.5 million with a proposed rate of 61.90 cents — a cut of 11.15 cents that assumed the new 2026 values were on the books. After the moratorium, commissioners adopted a smaller budget at a higher rate on the older values.

Local budget coverage of the June 25 meeting cited about $92.7 million as the property-tax revenue the county had projected from 2026 values and did not collect this year after the moratorium. That figure is a forecast gap — money that was never levied — not cash that left an existing account. The county’s own adoption release separately lists a $4.4 million revenue loss tied to another SB 889 provision on public-service equalization. Those are different numbers; they should not be added together as if they were the same cut.

School funding in the adopted budget:

• $288.1 million to Guilford County Schools for operations — $5.6 million, or 2%, above the prior year.
• $26.9 million in property-tax revenue for debt service on the voter-approved school capital bonds.
• The manager’s May recommendation, written before SB 889, had proposed $307.5 million for GCS. The adopted operations number is the one that is law for this fiscal year.

4. How the vote went (HB 1089)

The amendment cleared both chambers largely along party lines: the House 73-46 and the Senate 31-15. In the House, all Republicans plus unaffiliated Reps. Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed voted yes. In the Senate, all Republicans plus Sen. Dan Blue (D-Wake) voted yes. The Triad’s Republican legislators supported it; the region’s Democrats generally opposed it, citing risks to local services and schools.

Individual Republican votes confirmed in the official House roll call for HB 1089 (ncleg.gov). For the complete roll call, see the bill’s vote history. Scorecards on this site record the same session; they are not a prediction of November and are not endorsements.

5. Races to watch on November 3

The general election is November 3, 2026. Matchups below are confirmed against the N.C. State Board of Elections list and later county filings. Head-to-head issue cards for each race are on voter-guides.php. Session scorecards for sitting legislators remain on candidate-scorecard.php. Neither list is an endorsement.

Other county commission, school-board, and legislative races across the Triad are also contested. For the official candidate list, see the N.C. State Board of Elections and your county board of elections. Guilford’s tax rate is set by the Board of Commissioners, not by the General Assembly.

The clearest through-line of 2026 is still property taxes: it is the top concern, the reason this year’s bill uses last year’s values, the subject of a constitutional amendment on the ballot, and a theme in nearly every competitive local race.

What happens next

The June budget hearings are over. The remaining decisions are on a calendar:

• September 4. Absentee ballots become available. No excuse required in North Carolina.
• October 9, 5 p.m. Regular registration deadline for November 3. Same-day registration is available later at early-voting sites.
• October 15–31. In-person early voting. Absentee requests close October 20 at 5 p.m.
• November 3. Election Day: three statewide amendments, the Greensboro parks bond (city voters only), federal and legislative races listed above, two Guilford commissioner seats, and the sheriff’s race.
• December 31. Deadline to appeal this year’s Guilford tax bill — the bill based on 2025 values.
• 2027 tax year. 2026 assessed values are scheduled to appear. Commissioners will set a new rate against that larger base. That is the next local rate fight, not this fall’s.

If you want one official lookup for who represents you in Guilford — commissioner district, school board, and precinct — use the county elections map. Then use the November voter guides for the head-to-head cards and the scorecard list for sitting-member session votes.

Bring the brief to the commissioners’ meeting. We wrote it to be carried.

• Sources:
• NC General Assembly, HB 1089 / Session Law 2026-5, bill text, status, and roll-call votes: ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/HB1089
• NC General Assembly, SB 889 (property reappraisal moratorium): ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/SB889
• Guilford County, “Board of Commissioners Adopts Balanced Fiscal Year 2027 Budget” (June 25, 2026): guilfordcountync.gov
• Guilford County, “County Manager Presents FY2027 Recommended Budget” (May 7, 2026): guilfordcountync.gov
• WFMY News 2, coverage of the June 25 adoption and the $92.7 million projected-revenue figure: wfmynews2.com
• N.C. State Board of Elections, 2026 general-election candidate list by contest: NCSBE PDF
• NC General Assembly, SB 1080 / Session Law 2026-4 (income-tax ceiling 7% to 3.5%): SL 2026-4
• Ballotpedia, North Carolina 2026 ballot measures (three certified amendments as of August 31, 2026): ballotpedia.org
• WFMY, Mike Perdue named at-large GOP nominee after Tony Jacobelli withdrew (August 21, 2026)
• WFMY, Phil Byrd wins GOP sheriff primary; July 2026 overtime / vacancy interview with Sheriff Rogers
• ABC45 / WGHP, Sam Page retires as Rockingham County sheriff July 31, 2026, to campaign for Senate 26
• Our Piedmont voter-guide cards: voter-guides.php
• NCSBE upcoming election calendar: ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election
• Guilford County elections lookup (commissioner / school-board / precinct): electionslookup.guilfordcountync.gov
• Carolina Journal, “Property tax levy limit amendment heads to voters in November” (May 2026): carolinajournal.com
• Ballotpedia, North Carolina elections 2026 (race context): ballotpedia.org

This brief is provided by Our Piedmont Education Foundation for educational purposes. It is nonpartisan and is not an endorsement of, or opposition to, any candidate or party. Last updated September 1, 2026.