A tax hiking bait-and-switch is underway. Joseph Coletti and Roy Cordato explain:
Cumberland County commissioners have offered to lower the property tax by two cents if voters approve a new quarter-cent sales tax. This seeming generosity would still result in a $5 million tax increase and could be easily overturned. Ultimately, property taxes should be cut regardless of what happens to the sales tax.
The proposed quarter-cent sales-tax hike would generate $8.3 million in new revenue its first year. A two-cent reduction in the property tax rate would save taxpayers just $3 million. Taxpayers would still face a $5.3 million tax increase.
Voters rejected the sales tax hike on its own last November when county commissioners were threatening to raise the property tax if it failed. Taking the advice of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, Cumberland County commissioners also tried to sell the tax based on what the new revenues would help pay for — a library, schools and a new building for the Health Department.
These are the same commissioners who, in January, unanimously approved incentives worth up to $40 million over 10 years for Goodyear Tire Co. and who, in December 2006, approved more than $875,000 in incentives for an ethanol plant — a fuel that increases pollution and drives up food prices. After giving away nearly $4 million to a few companies between 2004 and 2006, clearly these commissioners could find money to pay for public facilities and services the county truly needs.
Looks like Mecklenburg County won’t get to similar tax antics until 2009, when the property tax reval hits and agitation for an additional quarter-cent sales tax “for roads” will be in full bloom.
