It’s touch and go for Durham’s effort to get legislative approval to put a 1 percent meals tax before Durham voters in November. Interestingly, in his defense of the bill, Durham Mayor Bill Bell makes a statement he clearly believes puts those who oppose the bill in a negative light. I say thank goodness for the legislators to which he is referring. From the News & Observer (emphasis is mine):
Approving the bill would not mean approving a tax, Mayor Bill Bell and others have argued. That would be left to the voters in November.
“It all got to be political,” Bell said. “There are persons in the General Assembly who feel that anything that remotely smacks of taxes, they have a concern about. … It isn’t the General Assembly, it’s the voters of Durham who will decide if they want to tax themselves.”
The power to approve taxation, or to give other government bodies the power to pursue taxation, has an incredible impact on North Carolinians. There should be a full discussion of every piece of legislation that involves taxation.
