Two Durham city council members are expressing support for a tax hike dedicated to parks. For now, Mayor Bill Bell and other members are hesitant.
Administrators modeled the penny-for-parks proposal on the “penny for housing” tax-rate surcharge the council implemented two years ago to fund the Rolling Hills/Southside redevelopment and other housing initiatives.
The draft proposal for parks suggests using, over the coming five years, about 52 percent of the money to secure a new park site in southwest Durham and do some artificial-turf installations.
The rest would go into maintenance, either directly for projects or into hiring and equipping full- and part-time workers to perform routine upkeep.
The idea, of course, is to downplay the impact of the tax by its name. The reality is that city staff estimate the tax hike would generate $2.3 million. That’s $2.3 million taken away from the people who earned it and given to government. Creating and maintaining parks is a generally accepted task for local government. Parks certainly add to quality of life. The point, however, is that if parks are deemed to be a high priority in the community, then funding them should move up the priority list for the existing budget. Remember — tax hikes fund the lowest priority projects, not the highest.
Get ready Durham. When ideas for tax hikes are floated, they rarely go away.
