Rockingham commissioner candidates spar over revenue neutral budgeting and the 'casino' rezoning

Four candidates for two commission seats laid out competing visions for county budgeting, economic development and zoning.

Incumbent Charlie Hall defended a recent budget that he said increased school funding and public-safety payroll while backing a capital improvement plan (initially described as roughly $49 million) to address maintenance and growth. Hall argued recent budget increases were due to inflation and long-deferred maintenance and said commissioners had worked to raise employment and infrastructure investment (he said the county has seen about $2.2 billion in private investment cited during the forum).

Houston Barrow strongly rejected claims he had voted "for a casino," saying his vote was to rezone property to highway commercial consistent with the county land-use plan and that only the state can authorize permanent casinos. Kevin Southern and Greg Zigler, challengers, criticized the rezoning process and advocated for increased transparency; Southern said he would have pushed for a voter referendum on the casino question and emphasized revenue-neutral budgeting and competitive public-safety pay. Zigler said he opposed casinos and supports a referendum to let voters decide.

Much of the exchange focused on process and local control: candidates differed over whether the county should have pursued more public engagement on high-profile rezoning and whether commissioners should have sought voter direction. The forum also featured discussion of school funding, workforce development projects and the importance of attracting businesses while balancing taxpayer impacts.

Candidates asked voters to weigh fiscal responsibility against service needs and emphasized the need to work effectively across the county’s institutions to address staffing, public-safety and infrastructure demands without unnecessary tax increases.