So here’s the starting point – all of us are North Carolina residents and the state provides us with a wide array of services that give us a basic level of protection, education and health.

The N.C. General Assembly has divided the state into 100 counties, including our Wilson County, and county governments are used to provide mandated services. Counties must have a Register of Deeds, Sheriff’s Office, public and mental health care, social services and schools.

North Carolina has also assigned county governments the role of running public assistance programs such as food assistance or Medicaid. The state and federal governments determine who is eligible for these services, but counties handle the logistics of qualifying individuals and families.

Counties are required to have health departments to monitor their residents’ health issues and educate everyone. They also have family & children services, veterans services, landfills and other services that the Legislature has determined to be necessary.

County services in Wilson are overseen by the Wilson County Board of Commissioners.

What’s a city? Why’s a city?

Like counties, municipalities are also children of the state government. The General Assembly has incorporated more than 550 villages, towns and cities, including, again, our Wilson.

If you look at the state map, only about 10 percent of the acreage is inside a municipality. Two counties east of Wilson, Currituck and Hyde, don’t even have any municipalities. A city doesn’t really do anything that the state deems necessary.

In fact, state law only requires municipalities to do one thing. You’re not going to guess it. It’s not police, fire, garbage, recreation, zoning, any of that. Nope, the only mandated service for municipalities is enforcement of the State Building Code. And actually they don’t even have to do that. Most small municipalities contract with their counties to do code enforcement.

Yet, the majority of North Carolinians, over 60 percent, live in a town or city. And generally it is more expensive to live in a municipality. For example, if you own a home, you pay both city and county taxes.

We have already hinted why that is. Every N.C. village, town and city exists today because a group of county residents has gone to state legislatures and said, “We want you to give us a charter because we want more.”

Towns were chartered as a way to offer residents more police and fire protection, to create water and sewer systems, to offer waste management, to build streets, to create parks, and to have land-use planning (zoning). The N.C. General Assembly authorized cities and towns to build electricity and natural gas systems.

The N.C. General Assembly also created property tax systems to fund city and county government, and both receive sales tax proceeds.

Local government is perhaps the greatest example of what President Lincoln once described as “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

The members of the Wilson City Council live in Wilson and were chosen by their neighbors to serve. They use their personal experiences to make decisions about city services. They are bound by the city rules and regulations they pass. If they raise fees and taxes, they pay the same increases.

Every four years, voters get to decide if they will get another term or if they will be replaced.

Want to learn more about how our city is organized? Check out the graphic below.

Seven districts and a mayor

The name of the city board has changed over the years, as has the number of members. Currently the City of Wilson is divided into seven districts, numbered 1-7, each of which elects a City Council member.

The districts were created under the guidance of the federal Voting Rights Act to help ensure that everyone had a chance to choose representatives, especially minorities. Three city districts currently have a majority of black residents, three have a majority of white residents, and the seventh is a mix.

The city’s districts vary in size, but they are generally balanced so that each district has roughly the same number of residents. Federal law requires districts be balanced as a protection of the “one-person, one-vote” requirements in the U.S. Constitution.

This Constitutional mandate also requires that the districts be redrawn after every federal Census, which are once a decade. The last Wilson redistricting was in late 2021, and the next one will follow the 2030 Census.

The district offices are open for election every four years on a staggered schedule. Districts 2, 5, 6 & 7 were last on the ballot in 2025. Districts 1, 3 and 4 will be up in 2027.

Only people who reside in the district are eligible to vote for that representative. To run, a candidate must reside in the district and be registered to vote there. State law says candidates for public office must be at least 21 years old.

Also, the City Council is overseen by the mayor, who is elected citywide. The mayor sets the agenda and runs the council meetings. The mayor only votes to settle ties, which are fairly infrequent.

Every two years City Council picks a mayor pro tempore from its ranks. That person serves in the mayor’s absence. The next scheduled selection will be in December 2027.

The next mayoral election will be in 2027. All city elections are overseen by the Wilson County Board of Elections.

The Wilson City Council has a monthly night meeting, usually on the third Thursday of each month (second Thursday in December). These meeting are usually in Council Chambers at City Hall, 112 Goldsboro St. E. Changes to that schedule will be posted by the City Clerk online and with paper notices at City Hall.

Every night meeting includes Call on the Audience, a chance for residents or others to speak on matters of city interest. These meetings are also streamed online and archived for the public to watch.

The City Council also has a regular work session on the first Thursday of each month from February-June and September-November. These are posted on the city’s calendar on our website.

All City Council meetings are open to the public, although Council may go into executive session to discuss matters that are narrowly defined by state law, such as personnel matters or economic development. Council must vote in open session and specify the N.C. General Statute it is using to enter into closed door session.

Meet Your Current City Council

Click through to learn more about our current Wilson city council members: Mayor & City Council

Most people are familiar with the idea of a budget – this is how much money you have coming in, these are your monthly expenses, and what’s left over (we hope!) can be put away into savings.

Like you, our city has a budget, but ours is hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It requires a whole staff of people to keep everything in balance and to ensure we get the maximum bang for your dollars.

To understand the process, you must first know that the City of Wilson is regulated by the state government. The N.C. General Assembly tells us how we can raise money and authorizes allowable ways to spend it.

The city has an annual audit with an external auditor who verifies that we are following federal guidelines, state statutes, our own policies, and many other rules and guidance that apply to local municipalities. Every year, the annual audit is submitted to the N.C. Local Government Commission (LGC), a state board that exists to provide fiscal guidance and ensure cities, towns and counties follow all of those rules. 

Wilson has decades of solid, accurate and transparent budgeting and financial reporting. We post copies of our annual budget and our annual comprehensive financial report (ACFR) on our website. We have been honored by the Government Finance Officers Association for nearly 40 years consecutively for excellence in financial reporting and budgeting. 

The city maintains strong bond ratings (AA, Fitch; AA-, Standard & Poor’s; and Aa3 from Moody’s), the equivalent of your credit rating. These bond ratings mean that we can borrow money at favorable rates to complete projects that require more funds than we can generate all at once through revenues. 

The budget process

As you have already seen, cities operate on an annual budget in North Carolina. This follows the state budget year, which begins July 1 and ends on June 30.

Here are some of the state requirements: 

• The local government must pass its budget for the next fiscal year by the end of June. Municipalities are not allowed to operate without a budget. 
• The city’s budget officer (in our case, the city manager) must present a balanced, proposed budget to the City Council by May of each year. That document is required to have a statement of what the budget is meant to accomplish.
• The budget has to be open for public inspection and the city is required to hold a public hearing before its passage.
• Local governments must pass a balanced budget. Estimated revenues and expenses must be equal.
• To balance the budget, local governments are allowed to use their savings, typically called fund balances. These accounts are meant to help us operate through natural disasters or other incidents that severely cut revenues temporarily. If we spend it today, we need to repay ourselves soon. Fund balance is typically only used to fund capital expenditures, grant match requirements, or designated expenditures approved by City Council. 
• The LGC carefully monitors fund balances and the city has a fiscal policy that defines our fund balance goals. Fund balance should be 25 percent of the annual expenditures in each fund, at a minimum. 

Budgeting is really a year-round process. As soon as the City Council approves the budget in June, the Financial Services department carefully monitors revenues and expenditures to ensure compliance with the budget. 

Deeper dive into budgeting

Still with us? Thanks! We will repay your interest by going a little deeper into the city budget.

General fund vs. enterprise funds. A significant portion of the budget resides in the general fund. The general fund has a number of responsibilities, including public safety (police and fire), parks and recreation, public works (sanitation and streets), development services (inspections), human relations, and planning and community revitalization. Also housed in the general fund are functional areas that serve the remainder of the city.

But the city also operates what are called enterprise funds, which are best understood as businesses that operate within the City of Wilson. These include our electric, broadband, water and sewer operations. These funds are required to be self-sufficient, meaning they pay for the goods and services they needs through the revenues they bill for services. 

City Revenues. The N.C. General Assembly has given local governments one main tool to raise money –property taxes. City and county governments are allowed to charge residents a small percentage of the value of their homes, vehicles, business properties and other items.

In general, these rates are based on $100 of property valuation. For example, if a city charged a $1 tax rate, you’d pay them $1 for every $100 in taxable property you own so you’d owe $200 for a $20,000 car or $2,500 for a $250,000 home.

In 2025, the city charged 52.5 cents ($0.525) per $100 and city residents also paid Wilson County 59.5 cents ($0.595) per $100 so a combined rate of $1.12 per $100. Most homeowners pay taxes through their mortgages, but all property owners are billed in September and the bills are due by the following January.

Property taxes on vehicles are collected during initial vehicle registration and when you renew your license plates.

Property taxes make up just under half of the money collected every year for the general fund.

Sales tax. The state also gives local governments a portion of sales tax revenues. If you spend $1 anywhere in North Carolina, between 2-3 cents goes to local governments. As of 2025-26, around a sixth of the money in Wilson’s general fund comes from sales tax revenues.

Fees and licenses. The city raises about a sixth of its general fund revenues through fees for services, including recreation fees, planning fees and other permits. A detailed list of fees in this year’s budget can be found on the website.

You can also find current and previous years' budgets and annual comprehensive financial reports on the Finance Division's page.

The City of Wilson is proud to provide a wide range of utilities that help make our community a great place to live, work, and play. Our team delivers dependable electric and natural gas service to homes, neighborhoods, and local businesses, working hard behind the scenes so your lights come on and your heat and appliances work when you need them. Because these services are locally owned and managed, we can stay closely connected to the people we serve and respond quickly when help is needed.

Wilson Water Services provides clean, safe drinking water and reliable wastewater service for every household and business in our city. Our staff carefully treats and monitors the water supply, so you can feel confident every time you turn on the tap, do laundry, or water your yard. By investing in strong water and wastewater systems, we’re helping to protect public health and support the long-term well-being of our community.

The City of Wilson is also home to Greenlight, our community-owned fiber optic network that brings fast, modern internet, TV, and phone service right to your door. Families, students, and businesses all benefit from the speed and reliability of this local service, whether you’re streaming, learning, or running a company from home.

By offering electric, water, and broadband together, we aim to make life a little easier and more convenient for our neighbors across Wilson.