Forsyth County, North Carolina has decided to raise property tax values by an enormous amount, which is not surprising for a county controlled by Democrats and RINOS. One property owner told me that his 36-year-old 1,600-square-foot house, which was formerly appraised at $125,500, was just re-appraised at $242,600; this is a 93.3% increase in property tax value.
(The median home value in Forsyth County is $163,426, which is already 25% higher than the national median value of $130,626.) This homeowner appealed this increase in February of 2025, as he thought this level of increase was absurd. His new appraisal showed 0% for economic depreciation and 0% for functional depreciation, yet he received the new bill with the enormously high property tax value the first of August.
Contacting the tax office, they said they had no record of his appeal, and he was patched through to a lead tax deferment specialist with twenty years of experience, who on two separate occasions stated that just because the appeal was not scanned into the system does not mean that they do not have it. So, the homeowner asked if he could send a copy of the appeal to the specialist so that it could be put into the system. Upon doing this, he promptly received a telephone call stating that his appeal had been deemed “untimely” and the July 7, 2025 newly appointed tax assessor stated that all appeals had been scanned into the system, and the 20-year tax specialist was in error. This homeowner is still fighting.
How could something like this happen? How could property tax values be raised so enormously high? Well, apparently the Board of Commissioners took a vote in June of 2025. The board consists of four Republicans and three Democrats. This sounds like a board that was elected by conservatives wanting lower taxes, but when two of the republicans are RINOS who vote with the spend-and-tax Democrats, the vote for the enormous rise in property taxes was passed.
The members of the board who voted for the tax increase are “Republicans” Don Martin and Gray Wilson along with Democrats Dan Besse and Tonya McDaniel. While the average countywide increase in property tax value increased 53%, Don Martin’s $934,600 home increased 32%, Gray Wilson’s $1.5 million home increased 43%, Dan Besse’s $254,100 home increased 45%, and Tonya McDaniel’s $210,400 home increased 46%.
The three members of the board who voted against the tax increase are Republicans Gloria Whisenhunt and Richard Linville, and Democrat Shari Woodbury. Gloria Whisenhunt’s $527,200 home increased 38%, Richard Linville’s $185,500 home increased 47%, and Shai Woodbury’s $31,000 home increased 52%.
Inquiring as to why they voted against the bill, the two Republicans responded that they wanted a lower rate, as would be expected. Surprisingly, when the Democrat who voted against the bill was asked her reason for the “no” vote, she said she thought the increase should be higher to help the “financially strapped” Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools” (WS/FCS).
While thinking about all this mess on the drive home from work, the national radio news stated that the WS/FCS is right now $46 million dollars in debt. How do you get $46 million dollars in debt in a school district? The buildings are built. You can use last year’s books. It is true you would have to purchase new paper and pencils. Perhaps pencils and paper must cost more than we all realize.
Researching this further reveals that state auditor Dave Boliel just released his audit of the WS/FCS. Mr. Boliel’s audit reveals:
- More than $75 million in bonuses were given out as WS/FCS overspent its annual revenue during FY 2022 and FY 2023.
- WS/FCS used COVID-era temporary federal funding to support staff salaries, but once the federal funds dried up, WS/FCS did not remove positions and instead absorbed the costs.
- WS/FCS failed to reduce its staffing levels proportionally despite a decrease in its student population.
- WS/FCS manually overrode the budget 311 times to approve purchase orders.
- WS/FCE did not reconcile budgeted and actual revenue and expenditures in a timely manner.
- WS/FCS misused suspense accounts meant to hold transactions until proper classification. As of June 5, 2025, the total balance under all the suspense accounts was more than $332 million. In standard accounting practice, all items in a suspense account should be promptly investigated and resolved to ensure the account regularly maintains a zero balance.
- WS/FCS was not fully reviewing all active contracts when creating the system’s annual budget.
With a $46 million deficit, more than $75 million paid out in bonuses, and $332 million in a suspense account, when does someone go to jail? When do individuals get fired?
Another article used these terms, “WS/FCS mismanaged money for years, state audit shows.” Isn’t mismanagement of government money against the law?
WS/FCS is the fourth largest school district in the state of North Carolina, and it “has a $46M budget hole.”
Further investigation reveals that the former Forsyth County tax assessor and collector, John Burgiss, retired at age 55, May 31, 2025. According to records at openpayrolls.com, in 2022 Burgiss was making $70.97/hour. That’s around $136,000/year. That is “252.6 percent higher than the average pay of co-workers and 105.8 percent higher than the national average for government employees.”
Maybe Mr. Boliel needs to perform an audit of the Forsyth County tax assessor’s office as well.
Mr. Boliel stated, “Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools dug itself into a deep financial hole, and it’s going to take real discipline to climb out of it.”
Is it discipline they need to climb out of the “deep financial hole” or is it an enormous increase in property taxes? If there is a connection between these latter two, it would be like a banker robber robs a bank and gets away with the money. Instead of catching and jailing the robbers, the bank just decided to decrease all interest, increase fees, and pass along the deficits to all the law-abiding citizens. When do the crooks go to jail?
Image generated by AI.