One trend I?m seeing in the enactment of local budgets across North Carolina is that, in an attempt to at least reduce if not eliminate property-tax increases, city and county officials are taking funding for local nonprofit groups out of their budgets (with the Charlotte exception noted above). Here?s a story out of Lenoir that makes the point. Often the dollar amounts are small ? but in a funny way that strengthens the argument for setting better priorities. After all, if a nonprofit loses a few thousand dollars in tax money and can?t survive, you gotta wonder if it was ever worth supporting (voluntarily or involuntarily) in the first place.