Early voting has started. In Buncombe County, education and outreach proliferate, telling people they must support education and vote for a quarter-cent tax increase. Don’t ask how new buildings translate directly to job creation. A school with more buildings will give the county another tool to offer in economic development incentive packages. Personally, I oppose the measure on the grounds that taking money out of the economy for government construction will take money from people who can’t pay basic bills as it is, many of whom have taken to the streets in protest. (Why did I use the word “take” three times in that sentence?) A secondary reason is that I am not convinced the school needs the buildings

The JLF’s Michael Sanera prepared a policy report opposing the proposed tax increase entitled “A Blank Check for Buncombe.” The bullet points below are just a summary. The reader is encouraged to read the four-pages of elaboration if he still feels inclined to vote yes.

  1. Buncombe County commissioners and the president of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (AB Tech), Hank Dunn, are promising voters that the $7 million that would be raised by a proposed sales-tax increase would be given to AB Tech for a new building and renovations, despite knowing that the funds would go into the county’s general fund and could be spent on any legal purpose.
  2. Additionally, promises made by the current county commission are not binding on future commissions that would be free to spend the funds on any legal purpose.
  3. The commissioner’s official Code of Ethics, passed just last year, requires the commissioners to “inform and educate the citizenry about the affairs and processes of county government,” not to mislead voters with promises that have no basis in law.
  4. The appropriate way to fund buildings and renovations at AB Tech is to offer voters a bond issue, which would legally guarantee that the funds were used for the promised purpose.
  5. Since 2005, commissioners have increased the county debt by 32 percent, ignoring voter accountability by using non–voter-approved debt.
  6. The non–voter-approved debt for AB Tech could cost taxpayers a 10 percent debt service premium compared with a voter-approved bond.
  7. Voters should receive assurances that the $7 million in new revenue from the proposed sales-tax increase would not go to pay the tax rebates given to Linamar Corporation as incentives to move into the Volvo plant, which the county recently purchased for $7 million.
  8. Voters should require the commissioners and Dunn to produce an academically sound economic study that would show how transferring $7 million from taxpayers to county government would create a net increase in jobs in Buncombe County.

The Sales Tax Opposition Partnership (STOP) has been making littler waves, but an email from its executive director, Robert Malt, lists similar reasons to oppose the measure.

  1. By State law, the money raised from the tax doesn’t go to A-B Tech…it goes to our County Commissars (er . . . I mean . . . Commissioners), to spend how they please.
  2. It is an indefinite (and likely permanent) tax increase. It never expires! Anyone who says it is temporary is uninformed or lying to you.
  3. If passed, this tax will create large unfunded liabilities for Buncombe County taxpayers to build and maintain these new construction projects . . . which means higher taxes for you in the future.
  4. If passed, the money would be wasted on dumb projects such as a 24,000 square foot gym. . . . what does that have to do with education!
  5. More money will be wasted on much higher interest payments than if Buncombe County passed a simple bond referendum.
  6. Jobs will be lost. The John Locke Foundation says that many jobs will be lost if $7 million dollars a year is taxed out of the private economy.
  7. It’s just plain wrong to vote on a county-wide tax increase in an off-year election. You can thank shady backroom dealing by Hank Dunn and our County Commissars (er . . . Commissioners) for that one. Unincorporated Buncombe County voters are effectively being disenfranchised. How can you vote if you don’t know there is an election! What happened to the concept of fair elections?

For the record, has anybody been paying attention to the locations where the AB Tech yard signs are planted? My favorite so far is the laundromat with signs posted both for and against the measure.