MANTEO, N.C. — The Dare County Commissioners unanimously approved Dare County's more than $240 million 2025-2026 budget Monday morning. But before doing so, addressed worries from residents that their taxpayer dollars were going to be funding the building of the Dare Early College, which all costs are coming in around $25 million right now.
"School improvements are funded through a capital plan and a capital fund that we, the Dare County Board and the school system, work together to put in place. The dollars that fund that come from the state. There's a state fund that's made up of lottery money, and there's a dedicated portion of the state sales tax dollars, they go into a fund that's allocated to all the counties in the state. That is, in fact, the fund that we use to do the early college," said Bobby Outten, Dare County manager.
Outten shared it has no impact on the tax rate in Dare County.
"We borrow the money. That fund gives us the money from the state coffers to pay back that debt service. It has no impact on our tax rate in our budget, our rate is revenue neutral. It remains revenue neutral whether we do the Early College, or don't do the Early College, it has no bearing on that at all," said Outten.
"I love the way the manager described how that's done, it's just like buying house. You go out and you finance the cost of the house, and then you make payments on that. They're going to go out and finance the cost of building the Early College, and then use the lottery funds to make payments to pay that debt off. The money is there, our board voted to allow the commissioners to use that money, and it's in the commissioner's hands, how they choose to do that," said Steve Basnight, superintendent of Dare County Schools.
The approved budget does include a significant amount of funding for Dare County Schools. Basnight shares he is happy to have the support of the county, for projects that extend to schools up and down the beach.
"The early colleges has become sort of the focal point, but our focal point is not only the Early College, but maintaining our facilities, our buildings and our campuses," said Basnight.
With no public comment, the commissioners and county manager feel everything that’s needed, is included in the budget that will carry the county through next year.
As far as the Dare Early College goes, the 58 students are now enrolled and a principal has been announced. Dare County Schools is in search of teachers at the moment and a groundbreaking for the building should happen sometime this year. For more information about it, you can see our previous coverage here.
