Commissioner proposes reassigning animal shelter design funds to teacher supplement; debate surfaces over economic incentives and EDC funding

Commissioner Wortman proposed during the June 4 budget workshop to reallocate $2,000,000 originally budgeted for engineering drawings for a new animal shelter to cover two ambulances, two sheriff's vehicles and a county-funded 1% teacher supplement, and to restore $225,000 to the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) budget.

"I wanna cut the $2,000,000 engineer drawings for the animal shelter because that's $2,000,000," the commissioner said, outlining a plan to redirect that amount to ambulances, sheriff vehicles and a teacher supplement. He said the reallocation would require borrowing $799,830 from the Community Investment Fund to make the full set of changes.

Budget and county staff explained the $2,400,000 figure shown in revenue slides represents money set aside in a fund balance to pay economic incentive grants, including an agreement tied to Eli Lilly: the company remits taxes upfront and the county pays back an agreed share as the company meets performance conditions. A staff presenter said the county keeps 15% of those collections and pays back about 85% under the incentive agreement.

Commissioner Pittman and other commissioners strongly objected to continuing or expanding taxpayer funding of nongovernmental entities. One commissioner opposed taxpayer funding for the EDC and certain economic development grants and recommended eliminating such line items from the budget. "My foremost objection is to any taxpayer funding for the EDC and economic development grants," the commissioner said during the meeting.

Emergency services officials briefed the board on vehicle needs. Cabarrus County EMS leadership said two ambulances budgeted at $585,000 bring the department to the board-assigned 5% reduction target and cautioned that ambulances that have been remounted multiple times pose safety and fatigue risks. "With the 585,000 for the 2 ambulances and what our anticipated collection increase is next year, put us right at the 5% mark for our budget," an EMS chief said.

No formal budget action was taken at the workshop. Commissioners requested staff to provide more detailed line-item breakdowns, options for spreading large future payments and debt alternatives, and to return with any required contract or grant information about incentive agreements.