Fee increases, animal care moves, pay raises: What’s in Charlotte’s proposed ’26 budget
Charlotte residents may soon pay more to the city despite property tax rates staying flat.
City Manager Marcus Jones’ proposed budget, presented to the City Council Monday night, doesn’t include a property tax increase. But it proposes fee hikes for some city services to help make up for stagnant sales tax revenues, Jones said.
The budget proposal also shakes up the structure of the city’s Animal Care and Control department after years of advocacy from local volunteers. City employees also are poised to get a pay raise.
Council members will spend the coming weeks finalizing the budget ahead of the start of fiscal year 2026 on July 1.
Fees up, property taxes level
Monday’s proposed budget confirmed comments from city staff at the City Council’s January retreat that they didn’t plan to raise property taxes in fiscal year 2026.
The city upped property taxes for the first time in six years last summer, raising the rate by 1.37 cents to 27.41 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Property taxes apply to people’s homes as well as items such as cars or other vehicles.
But with “essentially no growth” in sales tax revenue, Jones said fee increases for some city services and trimming spending where possible are necessary to balance the budget.
“There are really two levers that we can pull when we start to talk about the budget: How can we increase revenues, or how can we reduce expenditures?” he told reporters Monday. “On the revenue side, we had a big challenge this year.”
The proposed budget calls for multiple increases over the next four years to Solid Waste Service’s curbside fee. The fee would increase by $16.25 in the next new fiscal year, about $1.35 a month.
Fee increases will also raise Charlotte Water bills by about $5.47 a month under the proposed budget, and Storm Water Services bills by about 67 cents a month.
Changes to Animal Care and Control
Jones also announced the city will move Animal Care and Control out from under the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department to instead become part of the city’s General Services department. He said it’s part of efforts to improve “operational efficiencies.”
A coalition of animal shelter volunteers spoke out during public forums at City Council meetings throughout the last two years to call for, among other changes, an independent Animal Care and Control. Some advocates and staff previously told the Observer they felt moving the department out from under CMPD would speed up funding requests, improve volunteer experience and increase staff pay.
The City Council in late 2024 approved a rezoning request for a new animal shelter and adoption center in the Yorkmount neighborhood to help alleviate overcrowding at existing facilities.
“We continue to have the facility in our plan,” Jones told council members.
Pay raises for city employees
All city employees will get at least a 3% pay raise, Jones said. Hourly employees will get a 4% raise, and the city will raise its minimum wage to $24 an hour, a salary of $49,920 for full-time employees.
Some employees, including those with a commercial driver’s license or who work second or third shift schedules, will be eligible for additional 2.5% raises.
Police and fire department employees also will get at least a 3% raise under the proposed budget, and many will receive at least a 6.5% raise, Jones said.
Monitoring federal spending cuts
Shake-ups to federal spending by the Trump administration didn’t have a significant impact on the proposed budget, Jones told reporters.
But, he cautioned, that “doesn’t mean things won’t change” if there are more cuts, especially to longstanding grant programs the city has previously received funding from.
“We have a team that continues to monitor the impact of those cuts on us,” Jones said.
What’s next for Charlotte budget?
Charlotte leaders are still weeks away from finalizing their next budget.
Council members will hold a public hearing to get feedback from residents on the proposed budget during their evening meeting May 12.
They’ll meet again on May 19 for a budget adjustments meeting — where council members make their own suggestions for what to add, remove or change in the proposed budget — and on May 29 for straw votes on budget items.
The City Council is scheduled to vote to adopt a full budget June 9.
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 7:13 PM.
