The local former Knight Ridder outlet finally gets around to covering the tax cut plan Mecklenburg County commissioners Jim Puckett, Dan Bishop, and Bill James are backing. There is just no denying that the county is flush with revenue following the 11 percent property tax hike last year and, most importantly, continued strong economic growth.

The stair-step rollback of that hike advocated by Puckett and others would be solid move away from the tax-and-spend mania that has beset local government in recent years, really ever since the 2001-02 recession.

And as an aside, have you ever seen a headline imply politicians are “tempted” to raise taxes? What is it about a tax cut that involves temptation? That it is somehow “too easy” or is that it is sinful?

If anything, it is tax hikes that deserve the morally loaded descriptions.

Update: Almost forgot — How can it be that city manager Pam Syfert says that city fee revenue is coming in light, hence the need for a property tax hike, when the county reports no such revenue short-fall? Like I’ve suggested, it could be that the city’s higher business privilege tax — hiked last year, recall — is driving business out of the city.