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Higher taxes are in next year's Guilford County budget, which was passed along party lines Thursday night.

Democrats on the Board of Commissioners approved a $587.9 million 2008-09 budget giving $10 million more to schools next year, $250,000 to arts, $250,000 for a southeast Greensboro health clinic, $230,000 to a high school dropout program and adding 12 emergency and law enforcement personnel.

For that, the owners of a $200,000 house can expect to pay $92 more on their Guilford County tax bill next year, or 4.6 cents more per $100 valuation of their property.

The budget passed by a 7-4 vote as Republicans Steve Arnold, Linda Shaw, Mike Winstead Jr. and Billy Yow all voted against the spending plan.

"I'm looking at a million dollars that we could take off and nobody would've lost any sleep," Yow said.

The way that construction debt for Guilford County Schools affects taxes could have been lessened, he said.

"We are remiss if we pass this budget today and go home and say we did a good thing," Yow said.

Some commissioners previously said the budget could have bipartisan support, same as the 2007-08 budget, which Yow and Winstead helped pass.

Commissioner Carolyn Coleman, a Democrat, blamed most of the tax rate increase on $651.4 million in bonds that Guilford County residents approved May 6.

"Of that (tax increase), 3.4 cents the citizens voted for," Coleman said, referring to bond debt covered by the property taxes, "and our increase is only 1.2 cents."

Other commissioners mentioned that a quarter-cent county sales tax, which voters killed in May by a 3-to-1 vote margin, could reduce the property tax impact.

The sales tax choice may reappear on the November ballot.

"I've had a lot of people say, 'Gosh, I have no idea what it was,'" Shaw said of the sales tax.

She also reiterated her support for Yow's idea of a penny sales tax dedicated to school construction.

Putting $10 million more in Guilford County Schools 2008-09 budget is a bigger increase than last year, but school board Chairman Alan Duncan said the schools still face a difficult budget year.

North Carolina's state budget isn't done; and that could give a larger teacher salary increase than the 3 percent that the General Assembly wants. Gov. Mike Easley has called for a 7 percent salary increase.

Duncan estimated that the schools' shortfall could range from $2.5 million to $6.5 million, based on the outcome of the state budget.

And after a year without county funds, arts programs in Guilford County have money again.

The current budget had eliminated money for all community-based arts and nonprofit programs, but a few dollars squeaked back in the 2008-09 plan.

Teacher arts grants are back, and community arts programs will start again at the YMCA and in other locations for the elderly and mentally disabled in High Point, said Debbie Lumpkins, director of the High Point Arts Council.

"I'm thrilled, to speak for all the arts," she said.

As money returned to a few projects and positions were added in Guilford County, the budget came with some financial wrangling.

For example, the four EMTs for the county Emergency Management Services and eight extra deputies in the sheriff's office will open two months later to save money.

The county also took another $1 million from its own savings account to make ends meet.

And as the votes were counted, commissioners rang again on a refrain to hire a consultant to look for inefficiencies in the county. Costs for such studies can reach $100,000.

Yet one position request for a new staff member was not included in the budget: $54,000 for a budget analyst who would do that on a regular basis.

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