Funny how The Rhino Times is the only game in town to catch Mecklenburg County commissioner Parks Helms actually trying to tell the public that the coming property tax reval will be a wash for taxpayers.
“We’re simply talking about equalizing the value of property upon which taxes are assessed across the county,” Helms said the other night. “Some people may see their property taxes increase. But the likelihood is that some, many are going to see their property taxes decreased.”
What a load of crap. The vast majority of property owners will see a property tax hike — figure a 20 percent jump, some two or three times that. A small number of property owners, most of whom removed structures from their property thereby reducing the value mechanically, will see values fall. To suggest otherwise is rank sophistry.
Commissioner Norman Mitchell chimed in to say that residents should just shut up and take it and stop “complaining about paying your proper taxes.” This is SOP for Commissioner Love-it-Or-Leave-it.
And reading between the lines it is clear why some Republicans fell in behind the delay the reval flag: Speculative developers are hurting. Big inventories of spec homes mean that a reval now will catch them holding properties they had planned on selling long ago, and they certainly had no intention of paying tax on the fully developed parcels.
Meanwhile, Charlotte city council is content to play oblivious to the impact of the reval on city revenues and taxpayer wallets. To wit, here is councilwoman Susan Burgess declaring that passing the city’s massive bond request will not result in a tax hike.
“Because of our strong position we can say with assurance that passage of these bonds will not require a property tax increase,” Burgess said.
Great. So that means one vote to cut the city property tax rate to a revenue neutral number, right Susan? Susan? Hello?
Bonus Observation: Evidently the Charlotte Chamber is so worried about passage of the county’s $250m. Christmas tree of a parks bond that is has given up making sense. A pro-bonds pitchman told one local reporter that: a) Passing the bonds now is important because the real estate pull back has made land cheaper and b) Passing the bonds now is important because land for parks is getting scarce. Those are mutually exclusive and still not a good reasons to spend money you do not have for things you do not need.
