The Dive: Nickles, Dimes and Quarter Slots (2024)

It’s been a rough budget season all around the region, but New Hanover County has had a particularly tough row to hoe.

At the end of a four-year property appraisal cycle, the county faces three years of rising costs while the tax base hasn’t budged much. It’s also putting an extra $9 million toward the school district’s budget shortfall (on Monday, the school board asked for even more). And the county is on the hook for roughly $18 million more for the sheriff’s office, where chronic staffing issues have led to serious overtime. An increase in the overtime pay rate, designed to help recruit and retain deputies, has compounded the situation.

Even after scrapping a proposed tax cut, the county’s still in the red by about $7.7 million.

At a budget meeting Monday, County Manager Chris Coudriet first suggested covering the whole shortfall with the county’s revenue stabilization fund–a roughly $300 million pot of money from the 2021 sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health.

That solution, Coudriet admitted, was not well received, because while a simple majority can vote to spend the interest from the fund, only a supermajority of four commissioners can spend from the corpus. And Republicans Dane Scalise and LeAnn Pierce, both fiscal conservatives, said they won’t go for that.

Coudriet’s second suggestion was a series of cuts from several of the county’s bigger departments. The largest cuts, which Scalise objected to, came from the sheriff’s office, including $1.3 million saved by cutting overtime pay rates.

Coudriet insisted repeatedly that these were not “poison pills” to push commissioners toward dipping into the revenue fund. He also suggested taking a reduced amount from the revenue fund alongside a sort of à la carte list of budget items that commissioners could choose to, in language only a financial officer could love, “retain as an expense savings”–that is, cut.

Scalise took a different approach. He said he trusted Coudriet and his staff to come up with good suggestions, but wanted to verify whether there were other places to cut.

Typically commissioners only get a so-called “binder” of line item expenses after the proposed budget is put together, at which point they can make adjustments.Scalise requested a binder before the proposed budget came out last year. But according to staff, the last time it happened before that was likely in 2017.

Coudriet also pushed back on Scalise’s suggestion that the county could cut “a lot of little things.” “We will not get there with nickels and dimes,” he said.

But Scalise was eventually joined, at least in part, by Democrat Rob Zapple–who agreed that he would also review a binder, while leaning on some of Coudriet’s suggested cuts.

Democrat Jonathan Barfield Jr. disagreed. He said the county was responsible for its shortfall because it had cut the tax rate to the point where “we can’t pay our bills.”

Barfield said he was okay with either dipping into the reserve fund or “increasing our millage rate” (i.e. taxes). But he wouldn’t second guess Coudriet or his staff.

Now Zapple and Scalise will spend a long weekend going through their binders. But one way or another, Coudriet is legally obligated to present a balanced budget by the end of the month. He told commissioners that if they can’t agree on cuts, his budget will include the revenue fund money, setting up a tough fight to get four commissioners on board.

And the clock is ticking. With Barfield slated to miss next week’s regular meeting, there’s just one more chance later this month for the full board to hash things out.

–Benjamin Schachtman

Read this newsletter online or contact The Dive team with tips and feedback at wilmington@theassemblync.com.

Take A Gamble

Twenty years ago, Bobby E. Huckabee III pulled 87 video poker machines out of dozens of locations across New Hanover County. Federal officials were investigating the industry, and Huckabee’s associates at the time said the Wilmington businessman was thinking of selling his gambling company or leaving the state because of the unwelcome regulatory environment.

It was good timing–the state went on to ban video gambling outright in 2006. Huckabee was never charged with any criminal offense, but he was entangled in a campaign donation scheme that ultimately ensnared former state House Speaker Jim Black. (Black served three years in prison for a public corruption case involving chiropractors.)

Huckabee grew his business in Louisiana, South Carolina, and the Caribbean. But now he’s gearing up for a return in North Carolina, as the legislature seems more favorable to gambling. With state tax revenues projected to deflate, Huckabee is hoping his timing works out and those flashing green dollar signs will appear.

Bobby Huckabee’s New Poker Face

The Wilmington gaming operator’s campaign contributions were once poisonous amid corruption probes. Now he and his money are back, looking to legalize video gambling machines.

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Around the Region

‘Window Dressing’: The Community Advisory Council, a group the attorney general required the New Hanover Community Endowment to form as part of the hospital sale approval, told the endowment it isn’t fulfilling its mandated function, WHQR reports.

Chopping Block: Port City United’s violence interrupters team seems doomed for defunding now that yet another employee has been arrested. WHQR was in court for the hearing on drug and weapon charges.

JustYesMIL: Wilmington is preparing to update its code to allow residential accessory dwelling units in most of the city. WHQR produced a primer on how to build one.

A Cancerous Markup: A recent study commissioned by the State Treasurer’s office found Novant and other hospitals charged patients high prices on oncology drugs it had purchased at a federal discount, Port City Daily reports.

Around the State

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