TAX INCREASES ON THE BALLOTS
As another spate of counties asks voters to agree to raising taxes, JLF asks if the counties really need new revenues

On May 6, 2008, 24 counties will have put tax increases on the ballots. Last year the N.C. General Assembly relieved all counties of paying the portion of Medicaid expenses that had been forced on them, in exchange for the half-cent sales tax that the counties levied to help pay those expenses, and gave counties the option to seek voter approval of either increasing in the sales tax by one-quarter cent or tripling the land-transfer tax rate from 0.2 to 0.6 percent. Counties could opt not to seek tax increases at all, of course. So far voters in counties across the state have faced 33 total tax-increase proposals and voted down 27. The John Locke Foundation, North Carolina's leading think tank, has looked at the financial situations of the following counties seeking tax increases: Ashe, Duplin, Gaston, Greene, Guilford, Haywood, Hertford, Lee, Lincoln, Nash, Onslow, Randolph, Rockingham, Stanly, Tyrrell, Wayne, Wilkes, and Wilson.

Does Guilford need a sales tax increase?

The Guilford County commissioners are asking voters to approve a sales-tax increase on May 6. This report identifies nearly $83.4 million in revenue and savings the county could use to meet its needs — over five times the amount that the proposed tax increase would produce.

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Counties seek voter approval to raise taxes

On Nov. 6, 2007, several N.C. counties sought voter approval to raise county taxes, including: Brunswick, Catawba, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Davie, Gates, Graham, Greene, Harnett, Henderson, Hertford, Hoke, Johnston, Lenoir, Macon, Martin, Moore, Pender, Pitt, Polk, Robeson, Rutherford, Sampson, Surry, Swain, Union, and Washington. How did they fare?

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N.C. local government costs continue to grow

RALEIGH – The average resident of the median North Carolina county paid $1,236 to fund city and county government in the 2006 budget year. That number jumped 4.2 percent from the previous year, according to a new report from the Center for Local Innovation.

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Turn to the free market

Job Training That Works

Despite research consistently finding that government-provided job training and placement programs are wasteful, inefficient, and sometimes even counterproductive, while private programs yield strong, positive results, about half a billion dollars a year in federal, state, and local money is spent on public programs in North Carolina.

Free-market principles can boost redevelopment

RALEIGH – A West Coast success story can guide N.C. cities and towns looking to spur redevelopment. A new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report shows how Anaheim, Calif., boosted its fortunes without using economic incentives or abusing eminent domain powers.

Turn from climate fearmongering

Global warming proposals would gut N.C. economy

RALEIGH – North Carolina would lose more than 33,000 jobs and face a $4.5 billion hit to its Gross State Product by 2011, if lawmakers adopt just a fraction of the policies under consideration now to address climate change. A Boston-based economist who has analyzed the policy proposals will deliver that message Tuesday to a legislative study group.

Serious problems ‘plague’ N.C. climate change report

RALEIGH – An outside consultant’s report on proposed global warming policies is plagued by problems that render it “useless” to North Carolina policy makers. That’s the assessment of a new peer review (pdf version) from a Boston-based economic research group.