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GREENSBORO - Not only will talks on the county's next budget be open, but the public is invited to participate, according to the chairman of the county Board of Commissioners.

Small committees with a few commissioners, county staff and members from the business community will soon start work on Guilford County's next budget, said Melvin "Skip" Alston, chairman of the board.

The goal is to hack down a potential tax-rate increase tied to bonds that would add about $100 to the tax bill for the owner of a $200,000 home.

The move is the latest in creating committees that Alston first said Thursday would be closed to the public. That announcement came a few days after Alston was named chairman of the board, at which time he said he would try to be more open to the public.

Amanda Martin, an attorney for the N.C. Press Association, told the News & Record on Friday: "Committees themselves are subject to the meeting laws. There's nothing in a budget review that would specify a (closed meeting) under the exemptions."

Alston on Monday announced plans to open the meeting, in accordance with state law.

"So often we don't run a county government like a business," he said, with plans to invite local accountants, business executives and others to help study the budget and personnel. "I want us to be able to live and operate like a business."

When elected officials meet to conduct business - such as reviewing how tax money is spent - it's a public matter according to North Carolina G.S. 143-318.

More counties in the state are starting the budget process earlier, as the year promises to be challenging on all levels of government, according to William Rivenbark, a professor at the UNC School of Government.

"It's easier to make a reduction on a specific area in this point than in May," he said.

Typically, a county manager prepares a budget for the elected commissioners, who alter a budget closer to its June approval deadline.

Rivenbark warned that politicians can move from setting the goals of government to actually running the show and that they should be wary of that gray area between the two.

"The idea of a perfect split will never be there," Rivenbark said.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com