The land transfer tax fight in Orange County is underway, even though Orange commissioners have not yet decided to put the 0.4 percent tax hike on the May 6 ballot. In this Herald-Sun story (registration required), Orange Commissioner Mike Nelson is signaling the likely strategy transfer tax supporters will employ, should the commission decide to put the tax hike on the ballot: position the opposition as people who don’t really care about children. Nelson’s comments come in response to a realtor-sponsored poll that shows 68 percent of likely Orange voters oppose the transfer tax. (emphasis is mine).
“The Realtors got the results that they paid for,” Commissioner Mike Nelson said. “Clearly the questions were a little slanted. My uncle could do the poll in a way that would get answer A, and my aunt could ask in a fashion that would get answer B. I don’t trust polls done by special interest groups, generally speaking.”
Nelson said Realtors and home builders advocating against the proposed revenue option don’t have the best interest of Orange County schoolchildren at heart.
“And that’s what this referendum is about, getting additional revenue streams so we can build schools for our children,” Nelson said. “Are [voters] going to side with Realtors from Raleigh, or are they going to side with needs of our schoolchildren?”
The Herald-Sun deserves praise for including in the story several of the actual poll questions. By doing so, readers can decide for themselves whether the questions are objective or slanted and, thus, whether the results are valid.
Tomorrow, the Orange commissioners will receive the results of their own poll on the subject. My challenge to the Herald-Sun is that this week’s story on the county poll be written with equal transparency, indicating the poll was commissioned by the county, which, like realtors and home builders, has a vested interest in the outcome. Readers also deserve to see the exact questions from the county’s poll.
Stay tuned. The county’s poll results will be discussed tomorrow.
