Orange County commissioners have already voted to put a quarter-cent sales tax hike on this fall’s ballot — a shameful timing decision clearly designed to disenfranchise rural voters who were instrumental in defeating the tax hike last year. Rural voters will have no offices to elect in the fall “municipal” election. The tax hike will be the only item on the rural area ballot. Now Commissioner Barry Jacobs says a half-cent transit tax is next in the board’s tax-hike plans.
“We hope to put it on the ballot next year, so certainly it would help if it already has had success and people are talking about it in a positive way,” said Barry Jacobs, an Orange County commissioner.
While the Orange commissioners aren’t ready for a half-cent transit vote this fall, they’re pushing ahead with a November vote on a separate quarter-cent sales tax increase.
Durham County is putting two tax hikes on this fall’s ballot — the quarter-cent sales tax hike and the half-cent transit tax. If Durham voters approve the transit tax, it will fuel the tax-hike fever among Orange commissioners.
