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Guilford County, North Carolina · Guilford County NC FY2026-27 Adopted Budget

Guilford County — the money trail

$889,196,646
Guilford County (Greensboro and High Point), the third-most-populous county in North Carolina. This tree is the General Fund — the main operating budget, $889.2 million — shown by department, from the county’s adopted budget book. Counting every fund (debt service, school capital, rural fire, grants), the all-funds budget is about $1.19 billion. The property tax rate is 78.95¢ per $100. Every figure ties to the adopted budget book’s own summary tables, which foot to the dollar. Click any number to see exactly where it comes from. Where the trail goes dark, it becomes a numbered issue in the docket. New here? Read our story or take the plain-words tour.
Cross-foots ✓ 7/7
The real money is in your city or town. With no county government here, the budgets that shape daily life — schools, police, roads, trash — are municipal. Browse every city and town →, and walk the ones we've ingested line by line.
Now you've seen it — say what matters. You don't write the budget; the people you elected do. But this is the record they answer to. Tell them what to lean into, or what to take a fresh look at, and why. Set the priorities.
✓ Sourced○ Cited◐ Partial⚠ Ambiguous✖ Dead end
✓ Sourced = cited to a document and the math re-adds to the dollar. ○ Cited = cited to a document, but the math isn't independently double-checked yet. Hover any mark for what it means.

Where it goes — $889,196,646 appropriated

▶K-12 Education (Guilford County Schools)$367,029,00041%✓ Sourced
The county’s payment to public schools — operating plus debt — the single largest thing the county funds.
▶Social Services$107,292,66512%✓ Sourced
Benefits and family services.
▶Sheriff / Law Enforcement$98,939,23611%✓ Sourced
The Sheriff’s Office.
▶Public Health$55,868,9016%✓ Sourced
County health programs.
▶Emergency Services$48,260,5895%✓ Sourced
EMS, fire coordination, and emergency management.
▶Community College (GTCC)$28,489,9603%✓ Sourced
The county’s share of Guilford Technical Community College.
▶County Debt$24,319,4393%✓ Sourced
Debt service on county borrowing.
▶Information Technology$21,907,4422%✓ Sourced
County computer systems.
▶General Services (Facilities)$14,609,8512%✓ Sourced
County buildings.
▶Behavioral Health$10,936,7021%✓ Sourced
Mental-health and substance-use programs.
▶Tax$10,060,3741%✓ Sourced
Property assessment and collection.
▶Retiree Benefits (HR)$9,200,0001%✓ Sourced
Benefits for county retirees.
▶Child Support$8,780,3061%✓ Sourced
Child-support enforcement.
▶Parks and Recreation$6,361,7321%✓ Sourced
County parks.
▶Animal Services$6,274,4011%✓ Sourced
Animal control and shelter.
▶County Attorney$6,027,2601%✓ Sourced
Legal counsel to the county.
▶The remaining 22 departments$64,838,7887%◐ Partial
Planning, Register of Deeds, Elections, Libraries, Finance, Elections, Veterans, and other smaller offices combined — the General Fund total minus the departments listed.