Orange County has already spent $10,000 of taxpayer dollars on a public opinion poll that critics say was meant to simply help advocate in favor of the 0.4 percent land transfer tax that will appear on the May 6 ballot. Now comes word that the commissioners have told staff to get proposals from “communication consultants” to lead the “education” effort leading up to election day. Potential cost to taxpayers: up to $100,000. Just as interesting — and telltale of the commission’s ultimate intent — is this, according to the Herald-Sun story:
Perhaps most pertinent in the draft statement included the following statements: “if the county commissioners do not have voter approval to levy a .4% land transfer tax, that inevitably will lead to property tax increases to meet capital needs that MUST be funded” and “if additional funding does not come from the land transfer tax, it will inevitably come from the property tax for projects that MUST be done, and non-mandated projects will either be deferred or not completed.”
In other words, the county commission is saying that, one way or another, they WILL raise taxes. Yet again.
