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Working late afternoons and all night long over the past few weeks, S.T. Wooten Company crews have turned beaten-up Outlet Center Drive into one of the smoothest boulevards around. The Town of Smithfield dipped into reserve funds to pay for the $875,511 project. More overdue street re-surfacing is coming soon.

Smithfield's budget adopted with 45¢ tax rate

The Smithfield Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to adopt the town's budget for fiscal 2025-26 which begins July 1. Approval came after council members settled on a 45-cent property-tax rate – a slight reduction from the 47-cent rate recommended by Town Manager Mike Scott.

The council also agreed to keep residential electric rates unchanged. Manager Scott had recommended a 3.5% increase to pass along a wholesale-rate hike coming from ElectricCities, which re-sells electricity generated by Duke Energy to a group of municipalities in Eastern North Carolina. Instead, money held in reserve within the town's Electric Fund will help cover that added expense.

The proposed 3.5% increase remains in effect for the town's commercial power customers, which account for about 20% of all customers yet consume about 80% of the electricity purchased by the town.

Councilman Travis Scott proposed the rate freeze for residential customers. "Most of our residents are on fixed incomes," he said. "They're also looking at a tax increase" as a result of this year's countywide revaluation of real estate. Councilman Scott had suggested the 45-cent property-tax rate at the outset of Tuesday's discussion.

Councilman Sloan Stevens asked if removal of an electric-rate increase now for residential power customers would result in a much larger rate hike next year. "I don't think so," Manager Scott replied, although he pointed out that annual wholesale-rate increases of 4.5% are expected next year and the year after.

Councilman Scott recommended removing two large equipment purchases from the General Fund budget to clear the way for the new tax rate that's two cents below the manager's proposal. The council agreed, taking out $420,000 for outright purchase of a knuckleboom truck and a street sweeper for Public Works and adding those expenditures to the town's indebtedness.

Left intact by the council prior to Tuesday's budget adoption was the manager's recommendation to raise the town's sewer-service rates by 3.1%, which is less than a 10% increase in what the county will charge the town for sewage treatment starting September 1 (that's when the town's sewer-rate hike will take effect).

The town's charges for garbage and yard-waste collection won't change this year. 

Following considerable discussion about salaries, the council settled on 3% cost-of-living adjustments July 1 for all town employees and "possible" 2% merit raises for qualifying employees early 2026. Councilman David Barbour said that plan "gives us time to see where we land on tax valuations" currently under appeal.

Town Manager Scott said appeals by individual property owners of revaluations totaling about $227 million remain unsettled for Smithfield. Hanging in the balance is about $1.3 million in property-tax revenue for the town, he noted.

The town's 2025-26 budget provides for two additional sanitation workers, one additional school resource officer (SRO) for recently annexed West Smithfield Elementary School, one additional fire inspector, three additional firefighters, and a water-and-sewer line locator/inspector.

Besides financing of the two large equipment purchases for Public Works, the new budget funds two new police vehicles, a new K-9 dog, a new truck for fire inspections, a new truck and mower in Public Works, and a new vehicle for Code Enforcement. In addition, $250,000 is budgeted for architectural plans for expanding Town Hall.

The budget earmarks $2,440,900 for street resurfacing, with $2 million of that coming out of General Fund reserves on top of the state's annual Powell Bill allocation. Another $2 million is currently coming out of reserves for the repaving of Outlet Center Drive, South Third Street, and perhaps others as the allocation allows.
 

NOW YOU CAN CALCULATE WHAT YOUR TAX BILL WILL BE With adoption of budgets by governing boards of both the County of Johnston and the Town of Smithfield, homeowners can now figure 2025's property-tax bills. Check your revaluation notice to get the newly assigned figure for your residence. Divide that by 100 and multiply the result by 0.52 to get the county's portion of your bill and by 0.45 to determine the town's portion. FOR EXAMPLE, a residence valued at $200,000 last year may have a new tax value of $308,000 (based on County Manager Rick Hester's latest estimate of a 54% increase in total valuations across Johnston County). With last year's rate of 67 cents per $100, the 2024 county tax bill on our hypothetical residence was $1,340. With this year's 52-cent rate, the bill is $1,601. For the Town of Smithfield, last year's rate of 57 cents produced a bill of $1,140. With the town's new rate of 45 cents, this year's bill amounts to $1,386. As a result, last year's combined property-tax bill of $2,480 rises to $2,987 this year. That's an increase of 20.4%.

 

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Superintendent's 4-year contract starts at $235,000

The Johnston County Board of Education's contract with newly named Superintendent of Schools David Pearce sets a base salary of $235,000 with annual increases dependent on state adjustments and up to 4% more based on his annual performance evaluation.

In addition, Dr. Pearce will be eligible for up to $20,000 after each year of service "for reaching objective measurable goals for improvement" within Johnston County Public Schools.

The school system will pay full premium costs for medical insurance including dental and vision coverage for Dr. Pearce and his "eligible dependents" as provided by the state's health-insurance plan, plus $200 deposited monthly into a "flexible spending account" for use by him and his dependents.

The schools will also deposit $10,000 each year into "a tax-deferred annuity program of the Superintendent's choosing." He will receive $900 monthly for "business travel" within Johnston County.

The contract, effective July 1, runs through June 30, 2029 but may be extended.

Dr. Pearce, who presently holds the title of Assistant Superintendent of Administrative and Auxiliary Services, will succeed Superintendent Eric Bracy, who came here five years ago and will take over as Cumberland County's superintendent July 1. Dr. Bracy's salary this past year was listed at $280,406.52.
 

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Retail sales up just 4.4% in 2025's first quarter

Retail sales in Johnston County registered a year-to-year gain of 4.4% during January, February, and March – down from the 10.9% gain recorded for the first quarter of 2024. According to the N.C. Department of Revenue, 2025 first-quarter sales in Johnston totaled $840,815,259 – up from $805,162,604 the year before.
 

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County's customer-service counter to close early Monday

Officially, we didn't reach 100 degrees here this week as was recorded at Raleigh. High-temperature readings at the National Weather Service observatory at Johnston Regional Airport (JNX) were 96.8 degrees on Monday, 98.6 on Tuesday, and 96.8 on Wednesday before an early-afternoon thunderstorm pushed the day's temperature down from 95 at 1:50 p.m. to 77 just 20 minutes later.

Heat index, factoring in humidity with temperature, was another thing. The JNX station reported indexes as high as 110 Monday, 116 Tuesday, and 115 Wednesday. That's uncomfortable, to say the least.

Coincidentally, exactly one year ago the high temperature recorded at JNX was 98.6 on June 26. But that was the week's only day of temperatures that high, and the heat index was "just" 103 that day.

Real-time weather data from Johnston's official observatory – including relative humidity, wind speed, and heat index as well as temperature – is posted online> 
 

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 WHAT'S COMING UP 

Downtown's 4th of July fireworks next Thursday the 3rd

Festivities begin at 5 p.m. with a "Watermelon Social" at the historic Hastings House, where guests can enjoy locally grown melon slices. Next is a concert at the Neuse River Amphitheater by The WEJ, "Smithfield’s own rock band." Fireworks begin at dusk (from across the river). Organized by the Downtown Development Corporation, the event is open free of charge and includes food trucks, local vendors, and activities for all ages. Guests are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets, although there's fixed seating at the amphitheater.

Here's the lineup for Saturday's farmers market Downtown

The every-other-week "Smithfield Signature Fresh Market" is back this Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon in the county's parking lot at South Third and Johnston streets. Heidi Gilmond of the Downtown Development Corporation announced the lineup of vendors for this week's installment as follows:
• Daniel Wellons of W.I. Wellons & Sons Farms with fresh-picked produce.
• Tina M. Bryant with her signature sourdough goodness.
• Miry Branch Farm with seasonal produce and meats.
• Clover Leaf Farms returning with premium local meats.
• Cluckinfun Farm bringing fresh flowers, plants, goat milk soaps, and eggs.
• Herring Cattle Co. with farm-fresh beef.
• Mother’s Flower Farm with beautiful, freshly picked blooms.
• Daybreak Farmstead with fresh chicken and eggs.

Council to address Hastings House work, town's noise law

The Smithfield Town Council will consider awarding a contract for renovation of the historic Hastings House when it convenes at 7 p.m. Tuesday (July 1) at Town Hall. Also on the agenda are proposed changes to the town's noise ordinance and a request for the "Neuse River Keeper" to install a trash trap on Spring Branch at South Sixth Street. VIEW the complete agenda>
 

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  A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR 

Our higher tax bills aren't out of line with inflation 

It may come as little consolation for those among us facing unprecedented jumps in our property-tax bills this year, but when you look back at where inflation has taken us over the past six years, those bills don't appear to be quite so unreasonable.

From 2019 – when Johnston County last underwent real-estate revaluation before this year's shocker – until now, the nation's Consumer Price Index has risen 25.74%. Using our example posted above for calculating one's property-tax obligation payable later this year, our bills are rising just over 20% on average.

Keep in mind that real-estate valuations set by the county in 2019 remained unchanged for six years while county and town tax rates didn't go up. In fact, the County Commissioners cut their rate several times, reducing it from 76 cents in 2019 to 67 cents this past year. (Smithfield kept its rate unchanged during those years.)

If you calculate this year's total county and town tax-bill increase in our example above based on what was levied in 2019, it's an increase from $2,660 then to $2,987 now – a rise of 12.3% rather than the 20.4% produced by our example.

Perhaps all that explains, in part, why both the Johnston County Board of Commissioners and the Smithfield Town Council gave unanimous approval to their new tax rates despite the "sticker shock" of this year's revaluations.
 

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