Photo by Jason Benavides

May 12. By Dave Vieser. It doesn’t appear that Cornelius commissioners will be under any neighborhood pressure to adopt a revenue neutral budget. Town managers in both Davidson and Huntersville have proposed tax rates which are above revenue neutral.

What is revenue neutral?

Revenue neutral is when a taxing jurisdiction budgets the exact same amount of property tax revenue, in dollars, for the upcoming budget year as they did for the current year. It’s a big deal when tax assessments go up, as they did this year in Mecklenburg County. Theoretically it gives governing bodies a chance to apply lower tax rates while raising the same amount of revenue due to higher tax values. In reality, it doesn’t occur very often.

What about Cornelius?

Town Manager Andrew Grant will unveil his proposed budget this Monday evening May 15. Previous discussions with the town commissioners suggest that the proposed tax rate will probably be a penny above revenue neutral, down from 2 cents in the first public draft. The elephant in the room is the county, which comprises about 70 percent of a property owner’s tax bill. Mecklenburg County’s budget will be released May 18, and indications are that it won’t be a revenue neutral affair either.

Of course these are just proposed budgets and tax rates. Elected officials in each municipality have the ability to change the tax rates, perhaps lowering them to a revenue neutral level, before the spending plans must be adopted July 1.

Anyone taking odds?

The Cornelius Town Board Meeting on May 15 will begin at 6 pm in Town Hall on Catawba Avenue. It will also be lived streamed on the town website: www.cornelius.nc