May 27, 2026
Transylvania County Manager Jaime Laughter presents the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 to the county’s Board of Commissioners on May 26, 2026. Jonathan Rich / Brevard Beagle
By Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
Transylvania County Manager Jaime Laughter knew she would be making news Tuesday night when she delivered the proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year and she made it easy for the one journalist in the room.
“The recommended general fund budget is $82,536,220, this is a 1.47% increase from fiscal 26 with no recommended tax increase,” she said while standing behind the podium usually reserved for citizens to make public comments or for guests of the Transylvania County Board of Commissioners to lead her and the county’s elected officials through a requested presentation.
“Let’s stop right there. That’s the headline,” she said. “We’re going to go into a lot more detail, but our peers are showing recommendations that look like four to seven cent increases this year, or they are looking at pulling significantly from their fund balances. Transylvania County is in a position where we are not having to recommend either this year.”
That statement was what the Board and many taxpayers had hoped to hear more than a year after property reevaluations and a property tax increase in previous years, but Laughter had a lot more to share regarding how much she thinks it will cost to keep the county running beyond next year and what county departments want to accomplish outside of the next twelve months.
“Our budget prioritizes continuing investments in our workforce by maintaining compensation and benefits,” she continued regarding the long-term plan to retain and recruit county employees through more competitive salaries. “I do recommend moving forward with the salary study in this fiscal year and consider implementation before the original plan of 2028. Our last implementation was 2023 and the thought process was a five-year cycle.”
Continued funding for education and the landfill
Laughter’s proposed budget for capital planning includes the previously approved education spending five-year plan of $164 million in improvements to public school buildings which should be completed by 2030.
Transylvania County Administration
“We also have updated to include the $5 million state grant to build a new (career and technical education) wing at Brevard High School and include breaking ground and financing the courthouse at $38 million,” she explained. “The landfill expansion and infrastructure projects also continue with associated grants under this budget,” Laughter said of the $4,092,400 Solid Waste Fund for 2027 which is supplemented by $720,000 from property tax revenue in the general fund.”
As the solid waste budget does not generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining, Laughter agreed with an outside consultant’s assessment that the county should consider eliminating bag fees at the landfill and implementing an availability fee in conjunction with tipping fees. She said that the county should also consider the construction of a transfer station to transport waste out of the county instead of building another landfill cell after the one in current use is full.
“For ’27, the recommendation is to hold a series of hearings to obtain public input on the recommended options for funding future solid waste disposal,” Laughter said.
Future tax increase in ’27 or ‘28?
The county manager told the Commissioners the budget numbers she presented Tuesday night do take into account ongoing inflation issues such as rising fuel costs, but she also admitted financial markets in 2026 remain so volatile that projected numbers could fluctuate from where she thinks they will be a year from now.
Then she said there are other uncertain issues of state-mandated funding that must be accounted for and will likely force a tax increase in 2028.
“We have outstanding issues at the state level that are going to pass costs directly to the county, or have the potential to, and they would require that you fund to the tune of $2.4 million, which is the equivalent of two cents on your tax rate,” she said. “These are state decisions that do not have local control. You can advocate and we are advocating about these decisions and how expressly counties are going to afford these decisions across North Carolina.”
Laughter specifically said Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and administrative costs present a potential impact on Transylvania County costing $1.2 million as a result of federal changes to that food assistance program if they are not accounted for in the state budget numbers for next year.
She said another state-mandated uncertainty is the proposed 8% raise for public school teachers in addition to the 9% local salary supplement Transylvania County currently offers to educators.
“We don’t have enough information to actually give you a figure of what that impact is going to be locally, and that decision is not fully made,” Laughter said. “So, at this time we do not have that number in the budget either since we can’t even calculate that yet, but it looks like that could impact between a million and $1.2 million in next year’s budget depending on the decisions that they make.”
That does not mean, however, that the county manager does not have a plan.
“Right now, I am recommending that if those two eventualities were to come that you use your unassigned fund balance to fund it in fiscal ‘27,” Laughter said. “However, I also have to make sure that it is clear that it would drive a tax increase in fiscal ’28.”
She then explained that state lawmakers are considering putting the issue of capping property taxes on a future ballot for citizens to vote on and that could change one of the major sources of funding the county uses to pay for its expenditures.
“The issue that we have there is that local governments are required under the state statutes to use property taxes as our funding source. Particularly, counties have a very unique challenge with all of this movement at the state level,” she said. “You are both seeing an increase in your mandates from the state that you have to fund. You’re also seeing a message to restrict property taxes. There comes a point where those two cannot meet in the middle.”
“We’re mandated to fund education and when it comes to the Sheriff’s Department we’re only mandated to fund two positions,” interjected Board Chair Teressa McCall. “We’re not mandated to provide a teacher supplement, but we do. When we’re looking at mandated versus non-mandated, we go beyond what’s mandated. Not knowing what those impacts would be, we could be looking at some type of tax increase for (fiscal year) ’28.”
“Those are unavoidable in the sense that we don’t have local control over those decisions,” Laughter responded, “but those state decisions are of huge local importance to county governments across North Carolina. We’re not the only ones dealing with it now or are aware that we are going to have to address it moving forward.”
Financial mandates and uncertainties aside, Laughter did offer many specific decisions for the Commissioners to consider as the budget process moves forward, such as:
- Keeps nonprofit and community center grant programs and free Wi-Fi at county buildings
- Increases Rescue Squad budget 2.8%
- Operational increase for Board of Education expenses 2%
- Purchase of one new fleet county vehicle and replacement of 5 Sheriff’s vehicles; replacement of one ambulance
- Purchase of sheriff’s office evidence incinerator
- Replace chiller HVAC equipment in larger county buildings
- Various computer and software upgrades at county offices
- Install smart key system at Public Safety Complex
No money for new BRCC campus right now
The proposed budget does provide for Blue Ridge Community College’s requested 2% funding increase (as opposed to the 6% funding increase approved in the 2026 budget), but it does not include the proposed capital planning and payment schedule BRCC leadership suggested as part of the transition to a new, larger Transylvania County campus sought to meet anticipated growth needs.
Transylvania County Administration
Laughter said financial planning to purchase land and construct a new community college somewhere in Transylvania County in the next decade would likely result in another 4-5 cent property tax increase.
“It would require additional revenue in order to fund that project,” she explained. “Financial modeling using the 10-year debt repayment plan reflects an additional four to five cents in property taxes, or another 10 to 12 percent increase from this year’s rate, to pay for a new campus as requested with additional operational costs once constructed.”
Fighting fires with more money and more staff?
Laughter explained that the eight fire districts in Transylvania County are funded through the fire district fund and that fire district revenue growth was at 2%. She does not recommend a tax increase for any of those fire districts at this time.
Fire department district leadership in each district were asked to supply letters or resolutions detailing if they were asking for more than a 2% increase in funding and the county manager said those that did not submit such a request in writing have not received consideration for anything more than a 2% funding increase in the proposed budget.
“Those who did submit letters and recommendations for greater increases with justifications reviewed and the recommendation made accordingly by the subcommittee,” she said. “Requests for additional staffing beyond the four firefighters per department granted last year did not get included in the recommended budget.”
Transylvania County Administration
A 2.7% cost of living wage increase was suggested in this initial budget recommendation for all firefighters and all recommended fire district budgets do include some personnel beyond the 2.7% increase.
Laughter did note that new budget includes previously requested staffing at the Balsam Grove main station fire district project and that the Balsam Grove fire district was pursuing grants for those endeavors.
During public comment at the end of Tuesday night’s County Commissioners’ meeting, Brevard City Councilman Aaron Baker reiterated previous requests that county officials consider partial funding to increase staff at the Brevard Fire Department.
“You all spent a lot of time, obviously, on the fire department budgets and eventually decided to bring all of the departments up to par with three full-time firefighters. The city of Brevard currently has three full-time firefighters plus a chief as all the county fire departments do, but we are covering the city of Brevard and Silvan Valley fire districts. As you might imagine, we have one of the busiest fire departments with those two districts,” Baker explained.
“Our request this year was for the county to join us in funding their portion of three additional full-time firefighters so that we could bring coverage for that Silvan Valley district up to par with all the other districts throughout the county,” he said. “I would respectfully ask that you bring that up in the workshop if you are interested in learning more and consider it in your budget.”
What’s next?
Copies of all county budget presentation materials are available online at www.transylvaniacounty.org/fy27-budget and physical copies of the proposed budget are available for public review at the Transylvania County Library and at County Administration offices on South Broad Street in downtown Brevard.
“Commissioners, I’ve got a great headline: your recommended budget does not have a tax increase,” Laughter said repeating her initial joke to the few people in attendance in the Commissioner’s Multipurpose Chambers Tuesday night 45 minutes after she first started the highlights of the budget presentation. “However, I cannot emphasize enough that does not mean there are not difficult decisions to be made in the future or that the decisions being made in Raleigh to your options moving forward.”
Transylvania County Administration
Those options will be discussed at a budget workshop to be held Tuesday, June 2 at 6 p.m. and a second budget workshop, if needed, will be held Thursday, June 4 at 6 p.m. Both workshops will be held at the County Administration Building on South Broad Street.
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held Monday, June 22 at 6 p.m. at the County Administration Building and a final version of the budget for the 2027 fiscal year must be adopted before July 1.