Harnett County considers property tax relief for seniors, veterans

At the Sept. 8 meeting, Harnett County Commissioners weighed property-tax relief for seniors and veterans, while data-center rules move toward a November vote.

Chairman Duncan Jaggers said he wanted to “aggravate the snot” out of state representatives to prevent seniors aged 65 and beyond from having to pay property taxes and to force developers to pay impact fees.

Chairman William Morris told Jaggers to wait on contacting the General Assembly and asked the finance director to share data on how much the county could lose in tax revenue.

Christine Wallace reported that 1,300 to 1,400 seniors participate in tax relief.

According to Census.gov, Harnett County has over 19k senior residents.

Ownwell.com relays that the 19k seniors pay an average of $1,600 in property taxes, totaling $30,514,000.

Vice Chairman Matt Nicol asked about adding veterans not paying property taxes and for Wallace to provide data on what the county would lose in tax revenue. The purpose, Jaggers said, was to keep elderly people in their homes.

Using the same reference sources, of the approximate 14k veterans, paying about $1,600 in property taxes, minus $500 for each of the approximate 5,000 disabled veterans, the county earns over $21 million from veterans. $22,400,000 – (disabled vets) $550,000= $21,850,000

Commissioner Barbara McKoy said she didn’t agree about including veterans because “most of them had higher incomes than the average citizens.”

The board approved a Harnett Area Rural Transit System (HARTS) the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) grant agreement $424,331 grant agreement with a $63,651 county match, and they approved a capital grant agreement in the amount of $330,615 Capital grant with a county match of $33,062.

These grants fund expenses for providing public transportation to the citizens of Harnett County. The board approved the application and planned for the county matches in the 2027 budget on Sept. 15, 2025.

Commissioner Brooks Matthews asked for an update on the data center Uniform Development Ordinance (UDO) creation.

The data center UDO steering committee has one more meeting before they will have a draft, then plan an experienced data center creation person to review their draft. They have not decided whether they will ask for public input before its finalization. The committee plans to present the data center UDO to the board in Nov.

The county sold 85 Elmon Gilchrist Lane in Erwin to Roy Cambell of Lillington. Campbell’s upset bid was $10,550 minus the $527.50 deposit and cost for advertising the bid process at $248.98, leaving a balance of $10,271.48.

The board honored Harnett County Veteran Hero Ricky C. Brown.

The next meeting is Sept. 15 at 9 a.m.

Sept. 8, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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