taxes
At noon today I attended a seminar on the economics of town development. The speakers were sponsored by the town, county and chamber of commerce. The argument they presented was that most suburban development both residential and commercial require a very long time to pay back the costs of maintaining the initial infrastructure much less the general government cost of services. They analyzed the tax value/acre of land of various properties in town. Multiple store buildings create the greatest value although the Spotted Dog also was high in their calculations. Box stores like Walmart rated relatively low on their scale. Implied by their presentation is that the cost benefit formulas used for residential, commercial and industrial are misleading. By the way the title of their talk: Dollars and Sense is a name of a magazine I've subscribed to for years. It is edited by a "collective of economists, journalists and activists who are committed to social justice and economic democracy." www.dollarsandsense.org
Loren
Last night, the County Commissioners did a pretty good job of displaying why it has been so easy, maybe even necessary, for the County Manager to be such a policy leader. Fortunately, I did see Barry Jacobs really step up and push the board forward on transit. I think he'll be even more effective when joined by 2 or 3 new allies after the general election.
Big items on the agenda included delaying property revaluation, reappointing the defunct Economic Development Commission, and approving a long-awaited transit plan. They managed to do all three, but not without some kicking and screaming. See my live tweetage and other responses on Storify and below.
Well the Transit Tax for Orange may have some added poison. I say poison as for the Proponents of the Transit Tax for the Light Rail will not want an added sales tax Governor Bev Purdue has cast into the political winds this year. Outside the overwhelming distaste for more taxes by District Two, the poison for D1 is not notion of paying more tax for their costly train, it is the added threat to fuel to the fire in the pockets of D2 Citizens who have no use for a Choo Choo in a huge election year.
Durham's 60% to 40% margin for the 1/2 percent transit sales tax
eclipsed Mecklenburg's 58-42 margin on its initial vote on the same
issue in 1998. In 2012, the two allowed dates for a similar referendum
are the primary (currently scheduled for May) and the November general
election. Putting the issue on the ballot will involve approval by the
Orange County Commissioners, the Durham-Chapel Hill Carrboro MPO, the
Burlington-Alamance MPO, and the Triangle Transit Board.
With the month of May coming, it time for flowers to bloom and for our school district to trim resources. Every year when this happens I appreciate the flowers and figure there has to be a better way to fund our schools. Below is the text of a letter I send to Representative Insko with copy to County Commissioner Alice Gordon. There has to be a better approach that what we have now. Thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Via e-mail from the County:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Contact: Frank Clifton, Orange County Manager, (919) 245-2300 or Michael Talbert, Deputy Financial Services Director, (919) 245-2153
Orange County Public Hearing on 1/4 Cent Sales Tax
HILLSBOROUGH, NC –The Orange County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 during its regularly scheduled meeting at the Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m.
The Public Hearing will provide an opportunity for the public to comment on a potential November 8, 2011 referendum on a one-quarter cent (1/4¢) additional sales tax in Orange County.
During the 2007 legislative session, the North Carolina General Assembly granted county boards of commissioners the authority to levy, subject to voter approval, an additional one-quarter cent county sales and use tax.
It is projected the one-quarter cent county sales and use tax would generate approximately $2,500,000 for Orange County on an annual basis. If the voters approved the referendum on November 8, 2011 implementation would not start until April 1, 2012 generating approximately $625,000 for the remainder of FY 2011-12.
Donna S. Baker, CMC
Clerk to the Board
P.O. Box 8181
200 South Cameron Street
Hillsborough, N.C. 27278
Phone: (919) 245-2130
Fax: (919) 644-0246
email: [email protected]
Date:
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - 7:00pm
Location:
2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill
It may be hard to think of a tax increase as "justice," but Orange County has an example of just that in its proposal on the November ballot to raise the sales tax by one-quarter cent. A portion of the revenue if this wins approval will go toward providing a solution for Habitat for Humanity homeowners in Efland (many of whose homes were built by our member churches), who have been facing a 300 percent increase in their sewer rates. Justice United agrees that this tax increase, which means paying 25 cents more per every $100 you spend, equals social justice.
We will gather at 9:30am at United Church. After a brief press conference with our partner groups, we will walk over to the Seymour Center to cast our votes.
Date:
Saturday, October 30, 2010 - 5:30am to 7:00am
Location:
United Church of Chapel Hill, 1321 MLK Jr. Blvd
Orange County has pressing local needs including education, infrastructure, social services, health, and small business support - just to name a few. We continually are forced to wrangle over restricted budgets which pit important local needs against one another. Meanwhile about $2600 per county citizen leaves Orange County annually for the national military budget. That's a total of about $351million.
Our current annual county budget is about $178 million. Imagine what we could accomplish for the citizens of Orange County if just 10% of our military contribution was retained at home for local needs? Another $35 million annually would make a world of difference for us.
Make no mistake, U.S. military spending - the U.S.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners will place a 1/4 cent sales tax on the ballot this November. Revenues generated from the tax, which is expected to raise $2.3M annually, will be allocated for economic development (42.5%), repairing older school buildings (42.5%), public safety (15%). The tax will not be applied to food or pharmaceuticals.
Of the $977,500 expected to be raised for economic development, the county manager has proposed that 30% ($293,500) go to building infrastructure within the economic development zones and 15% ($146,625) go to a small business loan fund such as the one Carrboro initiated many years ago. I haven't seen anything designating the use for the remaining $439,875 (55%) other than a report in the CH Herald about the need to offer incentives.
When we go to polls in November, we will not be voting just for the new sales tax, but also for this allocation plan. Can you support it? Does this plan signal a new day to you?
Questions that I'm interested in having discussed are is 30% enough to build the needed infrastructure in less than 10 years? How should the other 55% be spent (I am totally opposed to incentives)?
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