taxes
Via the News of Orange:
Thursday, July 24. The
Orange County Democratic Women will meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Chapel
Hill Museum, 523 E. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill. The monthly meeting
will focus on taxes and comparing the priorities of national political
parties. The guest speaker will be Meg Gray Weihe, policy analyst with
the N.C. Justice Center’s Budget & Tax Center, who will speak on
“Why Tax Fairness Matters.” For more information, call Anne Thomas at
929-0547.
Date:
Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 3:30pm
Location:
Chapel Hill Museum, 523 E. Franklin St.
Who would have thought that in 2008 there would be any question about where the county lines between Alamance and Orange are? Turns out the exact line is in dispute to the tune of several hundred acres. http://tinyurl.com/56mkc7
Hillsborough budget proposal calls for tax rate increase of nearly 8%
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1073114.html
Proposed $18.5 million budget would raise Carrboro tax rate 4.9%
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1073116.html
notable quotes:
"The economy has really made it difficult," said Peterson, who noted that Chapel Hill and Carrboro also are facing local property tax-rate increases.
-- Hillsborough Town Manager Eric Peterson
"I don't recall, at least in recent history, a more dim outlook in terms of revenue projections," -- Carrboro Town Manager Steve Stewart.
I just got a robocall from a group calling itself "Citizens for a better Orange County" that opposes the Transfer Tax. It calls the tax the "Home Tax," which is clearly wrong on two levels. Firstly, the proposed tax is on all land sales, and secondly it is an attempt to falsely personalize this tax for local homeowners. Oh, and it fails to mention an important detail: the tax rate would be 0.4%. That's right: four tenths of a percent. That's one thousand dollars on a $250k hypothetical home. Sounds like too much money? Well, what are the alternatives? If this is defeated, the only two alternatives that have been seriously discussed are a sales tax (the most regressive tax possible) and a property tax increase. A property tax increase would be a home tax. Everything about the robocall was misleading and dishonest.
The call directs people to a website that I won't link to here. The website refers to "Tom Holt" as their treasurer and "Mark Zimmerman" as their spokesperson. A bit of googling gives:
[Cross-posting a good story about push-polling on the Transfer Tax (which the commissioners discuss tonight)at BlueNC by Greg Flynn.]
Orange County residents have been on the receiving end of dubious push poll telephone calls recently, described by one recipient as:
...what may very well be the most egregious violation of research ethics I have every experienced. The questions were all about transfer tax in Orange County and it was sleazy. The company was named TDM Research in Birmingham
TDM Research, associated with Democratic political consulting firm The Tyson Organization, whose clients include Bob Etheridge, has been responsible for other dubious push polls in Florida and Virginia in the past.
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