This fall, Orange County voters will decide whether to approve a quarter-cent hike in the sales tax. I write about the push today at www.carolinajournal.com.
When Orange County voters rejected a 2008 land transfer tax referendum by a 2-to-1 margin, county commissioners shouldn’t have been surprised. Their own pre-election poll showed support at just 31 percent. Despite appropriating $100,000 for a public education campaign, voters barely budged.
Commissioners hope the result will be different this fall when voters decide whether to approve a quarter-cent hike in the sales tax rate. The same 2008 poll that predicted the transfer tax defeat showed that 46 percent of those surveyed would support the sales tax hike.
If approved, Orange County’s sales tax rate would jump to 8 percent sometime in 2011 and generate an estimated $2.3 million per year in additional revenue.
