It’s no secret there’s a huge disconnect between the liberal elected officials in Orange County and many of their more rural constituents, but this Daily Tar Heel story exposes it yet again. Orange commissioners desperately want more public money — what else is new — and they’re trying to figure out how to get the 1/4 cent sales tax referendum passed in November. It failed 51 to 49 last time. Predictably, the liberal view is that anyone who doesn’t want their taxes raised simply doesn’t understand the issue and/or lacks information and/or access to media. That’s hogwash of course, but that’s the elitist view.
As the county reconsiders a potential quarter-cent sales tax increase, officials are trying to determine what went wrong in November, when the referendum failed 51 percent to 49 percent.
Some said the county failed to inform the rural community — where the referendum largely failed — about what the revenue from the increase would have funded.
“There’s not a newspaper that regularly reaches those people,” vice chairman of the county commissioners Steve Yuhasz said in November. “There’s not a radio station the equivalent ofWCHL. The Internet access is much more sketchy in the rural parts of the county.”
To correct this, Yuhasz said commissioners will focus on increasing voter awareness, especially in rural areas.
Note also that reporter seems to buy the liberal premise. Check out the wording:
As the county reconsiders a potential quarter-cent sales tax increase, officials are trying to determine what went wrong in November, when the referendum failed 51 percent to 49 percent.
