County adopts $244M budget for 2017-19

The commissioners rectified the mistake Tuesday in voting to approve the $219.6 million county budget, which keeps the special district tax at its new revenue neutral rate of 20.18 cents per $100 in property value.

It happened during last year's allocation of general fund expenditures, which totaled 513 million at the time, The county auditor's office incorrectly calculated the amount of property value that would not be subject to tax. Tim Lavallee with Wake Ed Partnership said the two sides have a decision to make as they evaluate the board's top priorities.

Wake County schools will receive more than $430 million in county funding for the 2017-2018 school year, which accounts for 52 percent of the overall county budget.

"Even though we're talking a lot about what the impact might be, which is still completely unknown to us, we do know that there will be an impact", Johnson-Hostler said at Tuesday's school board meeting.

School board Chairwoman Monika Johnson-Hostler said commissioners threw the school district a "curve ball" Monday.

School board members complained about a lack of trust they say commissioners have in how the district spends money.

Board member Jim Martin called for a third-party mediator to work with the school system and the county on budgeting issues.

Monday's vote wrapped an unusually bitter divide on the Democrat-controlled board, which by and large blamed state lawmakers for the school district's funding crisis. "All of the money for janitorial from the prior year was still there, and an increase". In a 5-2 vote, county commissioners instead gave $21 million.

Some Wake County commissioners place the funding blame on state lawmakers.

"I do believe that you're in agreement that we shouldn't be looking at adding additional positions unless it's self-liquidating, mandated, or fundamentally critical to the mission that we're doing", Brown said to Commissioners at the meeting.