The COVID-19 Crisis and How North Carolina Local Governments are Budgeting for It

Recently the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) and the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association (NCLGBA) partnered on a survey of county and municipal governments across the state to better understand how local governments are budgeting for FY21.  There are 142  responses.  29 are from counties and 113 are from municipalities.  See the map below to see the number of jurisdictions from each county area (total of the county and municipal responses). The Impact on Revenues The results suggest that, not surprisingly, the industries being most impacted are tourism, restaurants, and retail.  Most respondents reported that real estate, construction, and manufacturing sectors were stable if not growing.  However, despite the fact that some sectors have so far been shielded, the majority of jurisdictions report expecting General Fund shortfalls for FY21, 92% in fact.  Almost a fifth of respondents are anticipating a General Fund shortfall of greater than 10%.  The map below shows the distribution of those jurisdictions expecting a general fund shortfall and by how much.  Please note that is a jurisdiction reported “Unsure” it was coded as a “No” for expecting a shortfall and to create the average shortfall the higher end of the range was used. The