Cabarrus property taxes and school funding, 10 years
Ten years of Cabarrus County's audited financial statements, alongside what the county sends to Cabarrus County Schools. Numbers from the county's own Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs). This page reports the public record. It does not interpret intent.
The property-tax base, FY2016 through FY2025
The total assessed value of taxable property in Cabarrus County more than doubled over the last decade. The county reassesses property on a four-year cycle. The Jan 2020 reappraisal and the Jan 2024 reappraisal are the two visible step-changes in the trend.
Over the same period the county's direct tax rate per $100 of valuation moved from $0.7000 (FY16-FY18) to $0.7200 (FY19) to $0.7400 (FY20-FY24) to $0.5760 (FY25, the year of the most recent reappraisal). The FY25 rate is the so-called "revenue-neutral" rate, set after a reappraisal to roughly hold tax revenue constant despite higher assessed values. Revenue-neutral does not mean revenue-unchanged: even after the rate cut, the actual property-tax levy still rose 15% from FY24 ($240.7M) to FY25 ($276.9M), because new construction and growth in value add to the base.
10-year change in property-tax levy: $142.1M (FY16) to $276.9M (FY25), an increase of about 95%. Sources: Cabarrus County FY2025 ACFR, Table 5 (Assessed Value, Last Ten Fiscal Years) and Table 8 (Property Tax Levies and Collections, Last Ten Fiscal Years).
Where the levy went
Cabarrus County's audited total expenditures grew 89% over the decade ($226 million in FY16 to $428 million in FY25). The "Education" function (operating, debt service, and capital combined) is consistently the single largest expense category, but its share of the total has receded.
Education's share of total county government expenses fell about 5 percentage points over the decade, from 42.4% (FY16) to 37.4% (FY25). The peak was 51.2% in FY17. Education still received +67% more in absolute dollars in FY25 than in FY16 ($96 million to $160 million), but other functions (notably public safety and human services) grew faster.
Source: Cabarrus County FY2025 ACFR, Table 2 (Changes in Net Position, Last Ten Fiscal Years).
What it looks like per CCS student
The county tracks per-pupil funding to CCS in six buckets: current expense (operating), capital outlay, debt service, school nurses, server space, and fines & forfeitures. The chart below shows the total of all six, in both nominal dollars (the headline number on a check) and inflation-adjusted dollars (what those dollars actually buy).
In nominal dollars, total per-pupil county funding rose from $2,793 (FY16) to $3,475 (FY25), a 24.4% increase. Over the same period, the U.S. CPI rose roughly 31% (calendar-year averages 2016 to 2024; the 2025 average is not yet final). In FY2016 purchasing power, the FY25 figure is about $2,659 per student, a 4.8% decline in real terms.
The picture varies by bucket. Per-pupil current expense funding (the operating side, what pays for staff and day-to-day instruction) rose from $1,699 to $2,524, a 48.6% nominal increase and about a 14% real increase. Per-pupil capital outlay (direct pay-as-you-go school construction and equipment) fell from $137 to $26, an 81% nominal decline. Per-pupil debt service (repaying bonds for prior school construction) declined modestly in nominal terms ($849 to $773, −9%) and substantially in real terms (about −30%).
The full per-pupil table, six buckets, FY2016–FY2025
| FY | Current expense | Capital outlay | Debt service | Nurses | Fines & forf. | Server space | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $1,699.00 | $137.18 | $848.80 | $64.59 | $41.35 | $2.28 | $2,793.20 |
| 2017 | $1,866.59 | $182.14 | $1,010.11 | $68.87 | $40.75 | $2.28 | $3,170.74 |
| 2018 | $1,850.22 | $129.36 | $1,067.35 | $71.93 | $39.17 | $1.18 | $3,159.21 |
| 2019 | $1,887.69 | $29.73 | $1,085.19 | $69.38 | $37.40 | $1.09 | $3,110.48 |
| 2020 | $1,878.48 | $26.71 | $697.43 | $72.81 | $34.99 | $1.08 | $2,711.50 |
| 2021 | $2,040.84 | $27.21 | $968.53 | $86.48 | $28.60 | $1.10 | $3,152.76 |
| 2022 | $2,068.13 | $27.22 | $883.64 | $98.20 | $39.51 | $1.10 | $3,117.80 |
| 2023 | $2,167.27 | $26.77 | $1,067.92 | $103.39 | $39.64 | $1.08 | $3,406.07 |
| 2024 | $2,297.86 | $26.21 | $872.49 | $111.44 | $44.12 | $1.06 | $3,353.18 |
| 2025 | $2,524.26 | $25.91 | $773.47 | $121.78 | $28.59 | $1.04 | $3,475.05 |
Source: Cabarrus County FY2025 ACFR, Table 16 (Operating Indicators by Functional Area, Last Ten Fiscal Years).
What these numbers don't say
A few caveats a reader should hold in mind:
- The "Education" expense line in Table 2 is a GAAP accrual figure that combines operating subsidy, debt service on past school bonds, and direct capital outlay. It is not the same as the annual operating appropriation the county sends to CCS to spend each year. Per-pupil operating funding (Table 16, "Current Expense Funding") grew faster than the combined GAAP line.
- The two reappraisals (effective Jan 2020 and Jan 2024) create step-changes that affect any comparison crossing those years. The assessed-value increase from FY2024 to FY2025 (+47%) is the most recent example; growth in trend years (between reappraisals) is in the low single digits. The FY25 rate cut from $0.7400 to $0.5760 ("revenue-neutral") offset most but not all of that step-change.
- Inflation adjustment uses the U.S. CPI-U all-items index, calendar-year averages 2016 to 2024 (about +31%). A local Charlotte-area or Cabarrus-specific cost index would give a slightly different real-dollar figure but the direction of the trend is unlikely to flip. The 2025 calendar-year CPI average is not yet final.
- Per-pupil figures are computed by the county using CCS Average Daily Membership (ADM). ADM grew over the decade; total county funding to CCS grew somewhat faster in absolute dollars than the per-pupil change suggests. The per-pupil figure is the right one for comparing what an individual student receives.
- This page is about the county side of school funding. State and federal funding to CCS is much larger in absolute terms; under NC law (N.C.G.S. § 115C-429), the county appropriation is what local elected officials directly control.
- FY2026 and FY2027 are not yet in this dataset. The FY26 county budget was adopted in mid-2025; FY27 (the current crisis cycle) is what the April 21, 2026 Commission vote concerns. The trends above are what the audited record shows through FY2025.
How we got these numbers
Every number above traces to one of four tables in the county's audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Report:
- Cabarrus County FY2025 ACFR, the most recent county audit. Table 5 (Assessed Value and Actual Value of Taxable Property), Table 8 (Property Tax Levies and Collections), Table 2 (Changes in Net Position), Table 16 (Operating Indicators by Functional Area).
- Inflation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U, calendar-year averages 2016–2024.
- Statutory framework: N.C.G.S. § 115C-429 (county appropriation of school funds).
The full 19-year ACFR archive (FY2007–FY2025) is in this site's /cabarruscounty.us/ directory. If you want to verify a number, open the FY2025 ACFR and search by table number.