About This Project
What is Chatham County, NC Budget?
Chatham County, NC Budget is an independent civic data tool that turns published Chatham County budget documents into searchable tables, interactive charts, department drilldowns, year-over-year comparisons, and a property tax receipt view.
What you can do
- Compare budgeted spending across fiscal years
- Explore spending by department and line item
- See which departments drive changes over time
- Review the parcel property tax base by property type
- Estimate how your property tax bill is distributed across county services
- Browse the 5-year Capital Improvement Plan
- Search the Fee Schedule
Data Sources
| Document | Date | Type |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026-2027 Approved Annual Operating Budget | 2026-06-15 | adopted |
Methodology
Budget data is extracted from published PDF budget documents and organized into a consistent multi-year dataset. Revenue and expenditure line items are mapped to categories and departments following the County's chart of accounts.
The property tax receipt estimates how a property tax bill maps to General Fund services. It uses the entered property value, the applicable county tax rate, and the relative share of General Fund spending by department.
The tax-base view groups the County's 2027 CAMA parcel assessment roll by property use code.
FY 2025-2026 and FY 2026-2027 figures are from adopted budgets. The FY 2026-2027 budget was adopted by the Board of Commissioners on June 15, 2026.
Limitations
- This is not an official Chatham County publication and should not replace adopted budget documents or annual financial reports
- The explorer is only as accurate as the source documents
- Budget categories may change over time, so some comparisons require judgment
- This explorer focuses on the General Fund; the County's all-funds budget also includes enterprise and special revenue funds
- Department drilldowns reflect mapped departmental appropriations, while top-level category totals follow the official General Fund summary
- Receipt estimates are explanatory allocations, not official tax bills
- Parcel tax-base figures exclude vehicles, business personal property, and public-service company property
Official Resources
For official budget documents and financial reports, visit chathamcountync.gov.