Common sense for Guilford County

THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH.

And here's the part politicians don't talk about enough: property taxes don't stop with homeowners.

Renters may never receive a property-tax bill in the mail, but the owner of their apartment, duplex, or rental home does. Property taxes are part of the cost of providing housing, along with insurance, maintenance, utilities, repairs, financing, and labor. When those costs rise year after year, eventually somebody pays.

Usually, that's the public.

Homeowners feel it directly. Landlords and property-management companies absorb it as an operating expense. And renters can ultimately feel it through the cost of housing.

The dirty little secret is that government can talk all day about “affordable housing” while simultaneously making housing more expensive through higher taxes.

Guilford County's countywide property-tax rate increased for FY2027 from 73.05 cents to 78.95 cents per $100 of assessed value. And because of the state-imposed reappraisal moratorium, the new 2026 appraisals are now scheduled to affect tax bills beginning in 2027.

Mike believes taxpayers deserve answers before government asks them for more.

Why is spending increasing? What programs are working? Which ones aren't? What administrative costs can be reduced? What expenditures are wants rather than needs? And why should families be asked to tighten their belts if county government isn't willing to do the same?

Mike Perdue will push for a line-by-line examination of county spending and fight to keep the tax burden as low as possible while protecting essential services.

Lower the pressure. Control the spending. Respect the taxpayer.

Perdue 4 Lower Taxes & Lower Housing Costs.

Guilford County spends enormous resources on public education.

So taxpayers have every right to ask an equally enormous question:

Are our children learning?

This shouldn't be a Republican question or a Democratic question. It is a parent question.

Guilford County has excellent teachers, principals, students, programs, and individual schools. There have also been areas of real improvement.

But serious achievement gaps remain.

In the 2024-25 school year, state data showed that fewer than half of Guilford County Schools third graders demonstrated reading proficiency through the state's beginning-of-grade, end-of-grade, or retest measures.

That deserves attention.

At the same time, the school district proposed a budget approaching $1 billion for 2025-26.

Mike doesn't believe the answer is simply shouting “spend more” or “spend less.”

The right question is:

Where is the money going?

GCS's own central-office disclosures list 697 central-office employees. The published salary ranges for just the superintendent, two deputy superintendents, seven chiefs, and four assistant superintendents add up to roughly $2.4 million to $2.7 million annually in salary alone before employee benefits are added.

Meanwhile, the people closest to our children — teachers, teacher assistants, bus drivers, custodians, school-based staff, and principals — are expected to deliver results every day.

Mike wants education dollars pushed as close to the classroom as possible.

He will ask hard questions about administrative overhead, consultants, programs, contracts, organizational layers, and expenditures that do not directly improve teaching and learning.

This isn't about attacking teachers.

It's about backing them.

Our schools don't simply need more money.

They need more of the money we already spend to reach students, teachers, and classrooms.

Perdue 4 Better Schools.

There are Guilford County residents who truly depend on county government.

An elderly resident trying to remain safely in her home.

A disabled adult who needs support.

A family applying for Medicaid or food assistance.

A citizen experiencing a mental-health crisis.

A victim of abuse.

A resident waiting for an ambulance.

These aren't abstract programs on a budget spreadsheet.

They are people.

Guilford County Social Services processes tens of thousands of Medicaid and food-assistance applications and recertifications each year. The county provides Adult Protective Services, guardianship, adult placement, services for aging and disabled adults, emergency medical services, public health programs, and other essential services.

Demand for many of these services is substantial, and even the county's own recent budgets have acknowledged staffing pressures and the need for additional employees in areas serving elderly and disabled residents.

Emergency-service performance also deserves scrutiny. The county's FY2027 budget materials reported that the percentage of its highest-priority EMS calls meeting a nine-minute response target declined from 75 percent in FY2024 to 60 percent in FY2025 under the measure reported by the county.

When government is asking taxpayers for more money, essential services should be getting better — not becoming an afterthought.

Mike believes county government should put core services first and force discretionary spending to compete for whatever remains.

That means examining administrative overhead, nonessential initiatives, duplicative programs, discretionary grants, politically favored projects, and spending that cannot show a meaningful public result.

The elderly shouldn't wait because bureaucracy grew.

A disabled resident shouldn't struggle to navigate government while money is being spent on somebody's pet project.

Families in crisis shouldn't be told government doesn't have the resources while millions are disappearing into programs that Commissioners haven't seriously evaluated.

Mike wants county government focused on what county government must do — and doing those things exceptionally well.

Essential services first. Taxpayers first. Common sense first.

Perdue 4 Better County Services.