Saturday, September 5, 2026
By Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice on February 12, 2026
At their Feb. 12 meeting, the Dare County Commissioners unanimously approved putting a referendum on the November ballot that would raise the county sales tax by one-quarter cent to fund a series of priorities for upgrading Dare County Parks and Recreation facilities.
If approved, the measure would raise the sales tax from its current 6.75% to 7% and generate about $6 million in revenue per year. In his presentation to the commissioners, County Manager Bobby Outten noted that if an average Dare citizen pays 10% of their income on items subject to the tax, it would cost them approximately $14 a year. In addition, according to the presentation, 70% of the tax would be paid by visitors to Dare County.
Outten also explained that the tax would not apply to such items as automobiles, gas, groceries, medical supplies and prescription drugs.
Referring to a recent study on Parks and Recreation recommendations for the county, Outten said the findings “indicated that we need some significant improvements to meet the citizens’ stated needs for our Parks and Rec program.” 639040690624200000 The recommendations used data from a 2024 countywide survey.
When county officials looked at the cost of implementing those improvements “those numbers were over 50 million,” he added. “The long and short of it is there is not 50 million dollars in the Capital Improvement Plan to do those things.” The idea of using potential budget surpluses to fund that work, he explained, would take “many, many, many years.”
Outten endorsed the sales tax option as the best way “to fund this in a relatively short time without putting a tax burden on the ad valorem taxpayers in Dare County.” The $6 million in annual revenue, he added, would be sufficient to allow the county to borrow nearly $57 million for the improvements as sell as programmatic and operational expenses.
In outlining some of the “big ticket items” that would be funded, the county manager cited:
- Installing more playing fields and using synthetic turf.
- Expanding some of the facilities, including Wescott Park in Manteo and the Fessenden Center in Buxton.
- Possibly installing more splash pads, since the only one in the county is in Kill Devil Hills.
- Implementing repair, upgrades and replacement for the county’s playgrounds
- Addressing security concerns at some facilities by with more lighting and security cameras.
- Creating more outdoor recreational space, such as greenways and trails.
During the commissioners’ discussion that followed the presentation, a number of Board Members expressed enthusiasm for the referendum and major recreational improvements.
Commissioner Rob Ross asserted that there “seems to be a compelling case to do this for our community and our county.” Commissioner Ervin Bateman said, “Let’s look at this thing as being an investment in the lifestyle of the people of the Outer Banks,” he said, adding that the impact on young people’s lifestyles is of primary importance. “I think this is the most important thing we’ve done this year.”
Board Chair Bob Woodard added that, “this could really be a homerun for us if we get the referendum passed. For that little bit of money per household, that’s just a no brainer.
Several of the commissioners did raise other issues. Mike Burrus, citing “a high rate of injury” on artificial turf, suggested further conversation was needed on that subject—although Outten responded that many of those injuries involved higher contact sports played by athletes at a higher level of competition.
And Carson Creef, while endorsing the referendum, cited a number of important needs in the county, including employee pay. To that end, he wondered if some of the additional sales tax money could be “spread out” for other expenditures.
SEE ALSO: Hyde County voters to decide on sales tax on March 3
In November, Currituck voters will decide on sales tax, new electoral structure
Comments
OBX Pickleball Player
Oh yes, let’s put pickleball courts at one of the windiest places on the island with no wind barriers from either the ocean or the sound. That will be a ‘great’ place to play.
SMH
More taxes on local residents. Increase occupancy taxes instead leave citizens of Dare County out of pet projects.
OBNative
The parks and rec center(s) definitely need expanding/improvements….we grew out of them 25 years ago. Definitely worth the money for this BUT the improvements/expansions should be BIG!! Same need for more/bigger/wider sidewalks for bikers/peds to reduce road traffic.
Craig
At least we get to vote on it. The voters will decide if they want those extra services.
Rick
Can y’all please just pass this? Coming from your neighbor in Currituck where this is on the ballot once again, this is mostly going to be paid by tourists. For every $4 they spend, the county gets a penny. If you shoot it down now, it’s just going to be put back on the ballot next time. And if you keep shooting it down, they’re just going to raise your property taxes on you. At least with this tax the burden is shifted mostly to tourists. If you keep saying no, they’ll just come after your money another way that isn’t avoidable or on the ballot
OBX Pickleball Player
@Rick, or God forbid, the politicians cut spending. It’s really easy to not be efficient with money when it is not yours. The Dare County politicians surely spend frivolously with our money.
Rhett
How about we put it back into the school system and invest in our kids futures. How is it we have to pay for kids to use Chromebooks and run fundraisers so the student athletes can have meals on away games and wear travel polos. The middle school basketball coach said he couldn’t even get the county to buy the team new basketballs for practice. We keep building these “buildings and projects” but don’t really use the money wisely.
Jay
“if an average Dare citizen pays 10% of their income on items subject to the tax, it would cost them approximately $14 a year.” “The $6 million in annual revenue, he added, would be sufficient to allow the county to borrow nearly $57 million for the improvements as sell as programmatic and operational expenses.” I’m especially leery of whos pockets “programmatic and operational expenses” go. $57 million should buy a lot of recreational facilities. Do we really need more splash pads? Doesn’t the Atlantic Ocean provide ample opportunities to splash? What’s that you say? “In season there are not enough places to park if you live west of the bypass”.
$14.00 dollars a year is not much. That is less than two combo meals at McDonalds. My issue is as a resident of Kill Devil Hills just about everything every year costs me more than the year before. To name a few such as utilities, home owners insurance, building materials, food, and lets not forget living on this side of the WMB squeezes us 30+- cents per gallon for gasoline.
My vote will be NO!
Mike Williams
Only republicans I’ve ever seen who raise taxes more than democrats. Pray for these folks cause they lost their minds. Stop buying every county employee $90k government vehicles and constructing million buildings for ems so they can feel special. This crowd needs to be voted out. Yall can’t even pay for this stuff and you think it’s every tourist and resident of dare counties responsibility to cover your bad decisions. Yall got to go
charlie
It seems interesting that these expenses are going to a referendum but nothing else has…There seemed to be a considerable number of voters who were not happy with the concept and expenses of the “early college “program but that did not go to a referendum…The whole conept and millions spend for an “Event Site” never went to a refefrendum…..,.I would guess that the tourism board does not want any more expense put on tourists. A better way to fubd this is to get the law enacting the sales tax to change the percentage s.. Reduce the 75% for marketing and use the added $ to fund these things…
jackie harris
Yes 50 million is a lot but by the time the interest is added it will be a whole lot more, The new tax rate should be written that it cannot be used for anything except Parks and Rec. even as written it will take 10 years at least to pay off, As you can see the bait and switch ideas are already coming out??.
DaveS
I’m having a tough time believing the numbers, but maybe that’s partly by design. In order to generate a true $6MM in revenue with a .25% increase (.0025), the expenses would need to be $2.4B (as in Billion). If those expenses are truly ‘sales’, then would not expect ‘rents’ to be included, in which case without them, there’s no way to hit $2.4B. Is this more than a simple sales tax?
OBX Joe
You have to read all the way to the end of the article to notice that some people are already considering the possibility of “spreading out” the use of this additional money and that as good as recreation sounds the EXACT wording of the bill will be important on how the money is REALLY used.
What happened to our conservative Republican representatives that always criticize tax and spend Democrats? I thought smaller government and less taxation was the goal many ran onl!!
Passing a tax to allow more borrowing sounds like a very poor plan in my opinion but others may have noticed that deficit spending is a great idea these days with the national debt soaring to previously unseen levels why not us in the OBX too????