From Carolina Journal comes news that Orange County Schools and the City of Durham have both reacted to letters from JLF Legal and Regulatory Analyst Daren Bakst about their tactics related to tax hikes that appear on the Orange and Durham County ballots for next Tuesday’s election.
Several local school districts and governments have removed website materials advocating tax increases as the result of letters from the John Locke Foundation.
Daren Bakst, JLF’s director of legal and regulatory studies, sent letters by electronic mail earlier this week to public school systems in Durham, Orange, and Montgomery counties, along with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the city of Durham, and Orange County government, urging them to remove sales pitches for the Nov. 8 tax referendums. The use of tax funding to urge voter support for the measures violates state law.
Durham, Orange, and Montgomery counties all are pursuing voter approval for a 0.25-cent increase in the local sales tax rate. Durham County also is pursuing an additional 0.5-cent sales-tax hike specifically targeting transit programs.
Orange and Montgomery county schools removed pages from their websites dedicated to the tax votes that openly supported the tax increases. The City of Durham removed from its site the October episode of the publicly funded “City Life” video program featuring four guests backing the tax increase and none opposing it.
Durham Public Schools acknowledged receiving the letter but left a link to a flier advocating the tax on its home page.
Orange County government has not responded to the letter. Nor has Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools; its letter was sent yesterday.
“In 2010, the state legislature passed laws expressly prohibiting municipalities, counties, and local boards of education from using public funds to endorse or oppose referendums,” said Bakst, who also sent copies of the letters to the State Board of Elections and to elections boards in all three counties.
In each letter, Bakst urged the school system or government to remove illegal material “immediately” from its website and to “cease disseminating” the material in any manner. He also requested public records connected with the sales-tax referendums.
As Bakst said earlier this week, “The General Assembly has stated clearly that tax dollars should not be used to help a government agency or school system endorse particular candidates, or endorse or oppose a referendum. I hope these letters will draw attention to clear, blatant violations. I also hope these letters will help discourage further violations in the future.”
For background on Orange County’s tactics related to the quarter-cent sales tax referendum, read my recent Carolina Journal story here.
For background on the City of Durham’s endorsement of Durham County’s half-cent transit tax referendum, read my recent Carolina Journal story here.
