A cursory stroll through the website for Johnston County — for readers out of state, Johnston is a formerly rural county which is evolving into a big housing development for the Capitol and Research Triangle — yields a list of other potential taxing authoritites.
Besides the county and town commissions which already have that power, and the school board which may get it soon, we also have the Sheriff; the Registrar of Deeds; the judges and Clerk of Superior Court; the District Court judges; the District Attorney; and of course, the mayors. All of them could argue the same need — since they represent certain areas of expertise and find that explaining and selling the need to the county and town commissions does not have a guaranteed outcome.
Roy is quite right; if the flow of tax revenue was satisfactory, the school boards generally would not feel the need to take this over. But if the schools are not satisfied with the commissions’ decisions in the competition for tax revenues, then they would like to do so themselves. Either way, it represents a plan to increase the tax burden, which already went up significantly in the past year in Johnston County.
Oh, and in Johnston County, perhaps the tension between a Republican commission and a largely Democratic school board.
