Commissioners hold the line on taxes; King’s fire tax, however, will go up

(By Leslie Bray Evans, The Stokes News) - Monday, June 29, the Board of Commissioners of the County of Stokes approved the budget ordinance for fiscal year 2009-2010 by a vote of 4-1. Commissioner Ernest Lankford cast the nay vote, due to his concerns about the possibility of dipping into the county’s fund balance to finance this new budget.

“We’re spending money we don’t even know we’re going to have,” Lankford stated, adding that the financial situation in this state and country is dim, with the unemployment rate standing at 11.2 percent.

In the new budget, the ad valorem tax rate in Stokes County remains at 60 cents per $100 valuation of property. The steady rate is in keeping with this particular board of commissioners’ determination not to raise the tax rate, yet the decision to keep the rate flat goes against the wishes of a revenue neutral population in the county who wanted the rate lowered.