The new state budget is full of tax increases that aren?t accountable, aren?t transparent and are merely ?passing the buck? to local governments. Communities across North Carolina are starting to realize legislators handed them a raw deal in the $19 Billion 2009-10 budget.
As reported in the Greensboro News and Record, part of beer and wine taxes (which were just raised) will NOT stay in cities and counties as they are supposed to, but instead be highjacked by the state to meet general fund spending.
What happens when the local governments are shortchanged and don?t have money to build schools, provide water and sewer and police and fire protection, after they passed their annual budget based on promises made by the state? You guessed it, raise property taxes to make up for it. Greensboro alone expects to lose $800,000, Guilford County $250,000 and about $22,000,000 less for local governments across the state.
They could have reduced the cost of government overall as our Can Do Budget suggested. Instead they chose shell games to dodge the blame for even more tax increases, shirking their responsibility, hoping no one would notice. Sorry, we?re not that stupid.
