Tuesday night, voters across North Carolina soundly defeated 16 separate tax hikes of one kind or another. From John Hood’s Wednesday Daily Journal:
Indeed, fiscal conservatism was on the ballot in North Carolina – in 16 separate county votes on proposed sales, real-estate, and meals taxes. All 16 tax-hike referenda went down to defeat, often by huge margins. So since 2007, when the General Assembly gave counties authorization to raise sales or real-estate taxes, voters have rejected them 65 out of 73 times. You know, at some point this will start to look like a trend.
Rather than put these items on the ballot yet again, as Durham County evidently is planning to do, local officials should focus on the core responsibilities of local government, rather than the all-encompassing “quality of life” projects they continue to champion.
Chad Adams, director of the Center for Local Innovation, offers perspective on the role of local government in this weekend’s edition of Carolina Journal Radio. Here’s an excerpt.