State Legislator Jennifer Weiss (D), Wake county is mystified as to how anyone could be against letting the people vote on a land transfer tax.
“Many of us feel very strongly that these fast-growing counties need
this option,” she says. “For the life of me, I don’t understand why the
voters can’t be given that option.”
She recently got a call from a man in
Cary who lives on less than $30,000 a year in Social Security and
pension income. “He has to take out a home equity loan to pay down his
property tax each year,” Weiss says. (From the Independent)
Now, what’s fascinating to me is that the state is increasing spending somewhere between 7% and 7.6% this year as it has done for years which means spending is growing faster than incomes. Representative Weiss, maybe, just maybe, if we would look at the spending side of things, people’s ability to pay wouldn’t be a problem.
The truth is, he also has to pay the “temporary sales tax” on that $30k a year as well which you voted to keep in place. He’ll also be subject to the $50 a year on his utility bill if the REPS bill passes. He’s also seen fee increases and his property taxes also have been paying for Medicare because the state hasn’t passed relief to the counties yet. Most of us can’t understand how you could support hurting this fella by voting to keep spending more and more year after year as well as supporting unfunded mandates to the counties.
