- By Todd Luck
- Posted Friday, June 5, 2026
Commissioners approve budget that maintains services and invests in community
Forsyth County commissioners approved a $600.7 million budget on June 4 that maintains county services, increases school funding and continues their support of community agencies while strengthening the county’s fiscal health.
The property tax rate in the recommended budget is 55.40 cents per $100 of property value, which is a 1.88 cent increase over the current fiscal year. For the average median home value in Forsyth County of $269,700, that would result in a $50.70 increase in annual property tax, which is the equivalent of $4.23 per month.
The budget grew by a modest 1.6 percent over the current fiscal year in order to maintain county services.
Education remains the county’s top spending area with $193.5 million or 32 percent of the budget. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County (WS/FC) Schools receives 92.5 percent of those funds, or $179 million, with Forsyth Technical Community College and Cooperative Extension receiving the remainder. This does not include School Resource Officers, provided by the Sheriff’s Office and school nurses, provided by Public Health. If those were included, it would bring the county’s funding for WS/FC Schools to $184 million. WS/FC Schools received a $1.78 million, or 1 percent, increase in recurring funds, using a funding formula that provides predictable and sustainable funding. During the budget deliberations, an additional $1.3 million was added to assist with their Exceptional Children staffing, bringing the increase to $3.1 million, or 1.7%. Additionally, education bond projects, like school construction and renovations, make up $60.16 million of the $85.6 million devoted to debt service in the General Fund.
Public Safety is the county’s second largest service area by expenditures, with 19 percent of the budget or $116.5 million. The Sheriff’s Office receives 73 percent of those funds, or $85 million, and Emergency Services receives 26 percent of those funds, or $30 million.
The budget has new spending with strategic investments in critical areas, more than half of which are offset with revenues. This includes two new County Fire positions, additional detention center funding due to its increased population along with printing hardware and software for Social Services. It also includes new positions for a County grant writer and a special assistance social worker, a new ambulance, fleet management software to track the maintenance and utilization of county vehicles and additional funding for local Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) education through NC Cooperative Extension Forsyth Center. There’s also continued funding for the violence intervention program Forsyth WINS using state and federal money.
To support the County’s ability to attract and retain top talent, the budget continues to fund annual performance-based salary increases as well as longevity payments for employees.
The budget includes $1.77 million in community grants for local non-profits, including Senior Services, Experiment in Self-Reliance, Children’s Law Center, LEAD Girls of North Carolina, Legal Aid, The Dwelling, Bethesda Center for the Homeless, Horizons Residential Care Center, Crosby Scholars, Arts Council, Old Salem and others.
The budget also transitions funding of the County fire system from 25 individual fire tax districts and fully funds the system through a single Countywide overlay district tax. The Countywide overlay rate will be set at 9.51 cents and the individual fire tax district rates will be reduced to zero. This will be less than what residents in 10 out of the County’s 25 fire districts are currently paying in fire taxes and will cause modest increases in the others. The tax will support fire suppression and prevention operations. This change will help modernize the County’s fire system and address the long-standing funding inequalities in some rural fire departments.
The commissioners thanked the budget staff for their hard work and diligence in preparing the budget.
The recommended budget is still available to view online on the Budget Department website. You can view the recorded budget meeting and budget resolutions on County's website
The final, approved budget, which goes into effect on July 1, will be available online by the end of the month.
