Some counties want to gain from the burst housing bubble
In good times, counties are eager to revalue property more often in order to increase tax revenues based on increasing property values. On the other hand, since the housing bubble burst, some county officials want to delay revaluation in order to collect taxes based on the inflated home values under the housing bubble. The difference between home values pre- and post-bubble can be significant. In Wake County it is only 6 percent, but in New Hanover County it is 13 percent, and in Cherokee County it is 31 percent, according to this article in the Triangle Business Journal (subscription required).
It would seem that county officials would want to help property owners struggling with the current economic downturn, but exactly the opposite is happening. Some counties that are benefiting from this discrepancy want to maintain it by delaying revaluations that would bring the tax value in line with the current market values. Currently 42 counties have the ability to delay revaluations because their revaluations are scheduled for less than the every eight years required by state statute. Most of those have scheduled revaluations every four years. For example, five counties that are on a four-year revaluation schedule — Davie, Forsyth, Harnett, Orange, and Stokes — could delay their 2013 revaluation for up to four years and still meet the state requirement of revaluation every eight years.
That is exactly what some counties are contemplating. Scott McGee of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners is quoted as stating: "Some [county commissioners] are thinking about backing off [delaying revaluations] and waiting for the [economic] turnaround to happen." In other words, some county commissioners want to continue to collect revenue based on inflated housing valuations. Their mindset is that the county bureaucracy comes first, before the county taxpayers that they were elected to serve. It is just one of the many reasons that so many citizens are cynical about government at all levels.
Newton is the latest town to harm local business by using taxpayer funds to provide "free" WiFi downtown.
Newton joins Raleigh, Cary, Asheville, Hendersonville, Blowing Rock, Southern Pines, Sylva, Apex, and Mt. Airy in providing "free" WiFi downtown. Local businesses that want to gain a competitive advantage have installed WiFi at their own expense for their customers. Now the city, using taxpayer money (some of which is from the businesses that have already paid for their own WiFi for their customers) will be subsidizing those businesses that failed to install WiFi. Just as cities should stay out of the fiber-optic cable business, they should also stay out of the WiFi business.
Local government news from John Locke Foundation blogs
- Asheville area restaurants receive over a quarter of a million dollars in state taxpayer money to "go green"
- Smart Growth or property rights in Asheville
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