The new North Wilkesboro budget was approved last week following a tie-breaking vote by Mayor Mark Hauser. Increases in the budget for North Wilkesboro included monthly residential and commercial garbage can collection fees to $17 per can and monthly commercial dumpster pickup fee to $33 per container due to an increase in the Wilkes County Landfill tipping fee in the new county. A water rate increase proposed in the draft budget was omitted. The North Wilkesboro 2025-26 budget has a tax rate of 41 cents per $100 of property valuation instead of the 39-cent rate proposed in an earlier meeting.