Did Ed Booth lie about not raising taxes, or is he just ignorant? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

Read this and decide for yourself

    Did Ed Booth lie at the 10-13-14 Candidate's Forum, or does he simply not know what he's doing as a County Commissioner? Either way, it's bad. Watch the video below and decide for yourself whether he is lying or simply ignorant.

    Here's what he said:



    Now here's the truth. Ed Booth voted to raise the property tax rate from $.50 per $100 in value to $.53 in 2011. Ed Booth joined the other Democrats and Al Klemm in voting for that rate increase. Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage voted against it. That's a six percent increase in the tax rate. Voting to raise taxes must not have been very significant to Mr. Booth not to be able to remember his vote just three short years ago.

    But it gets worse. In 2011 the taxpayers of Beaufort County suffered a "revaluation." For many (thousands of people) their taxes went up substantially. For example, Wal-Mart's went up $1513.13. Lowes went up $2481.96, Golden Corral's went up from $13,271 to 13,703. Randomly selected residential property (Parcel 11-004808) went from $877.96 (the first year Ed Booth was elected) to $1506.44 in 2014, or a 42% increase. Another parcel (12-014977) went from $956.66 in 2009 to $1703.75 in 2014 and yet another very modest lot and house (11023880) went from $435.75 in 2009 to $731.21 in 2014. Now some parcels went down in value, to be sure, but they are hard to find. And the very fact that they suffered a decrease in value meant that in most cases the actual "real" tax burden was heavier, not less.

    The way we figure it, all of these were substantial tax increases, yet Ed Booth says "we've never raised taxes since I've been a Commissioner..."

    But here's the really amazing stat: Ed Booth's taxes on HIS house went up from $1188.66 in 2010 to $1221.61. Yes, you read that correctly. Ed Booth himself suffered a tax increase but he either lied about it or somehow did not know it happened to him. Again, either way it's bad for a Commissioner to be ignorant or dishonest.

    While we're on the subject of taxes there are several other points that need to be made:

    • The increases, as illustrated above, occur every year. You don't just pay the increased amount in the year it went up, you pay it again the next year, and again the next year and again...

    • Everybody is impacted by these higher taxes, regardless of whether or not they own real estate. If you make a purchase from Wal-Mart you paid part of their $1513 increase. The same with Lowes or Golden Corral. Even if you bought services you paid property taxes. The business that provided the services paid higher property taxes and they have to include it in their overhead if they are to stay in business.

    • But some businesses cannot pass along all of the tax increase to the end user. So what most of those businesses do is cut personnel costs, the one area they can control. That means cutting jobs. Thus, raising taxes kills jobs. Employees' hours are cut. Benefits are reduced.

    • When all of this money is sucked out of the local economy and spent on government the productivity of those resources diminishes significantly. That is true even if the increase in tax revenue comes from increases in the assessed valuation. Higher taxes depress economic growth and development, thus shifting the burden to existing businesses and property owners.

    Yes, Mr. Booth. You did raise taxes. You raised taxes significantly. And you raised every person's taxes by sucking more money out of the economy that would have happened if you had not increased taxes. In fact, you hurt the most vulnerable people in the County...the ones least able to pay the impact of your higher taxes. And then you claim you never did it. Shame, shame on you Mr. Booth.

    Ed Booth is running for re-election in this election.

    Commentary:

    We don't think Ed Booth is ignorant. And we have serious doubts about whether he was knowingly telling a flat out lie at the Forum. Rather, we think Ed is the classical liberal politician. He can support things that cause taxes to go up without giving it a second thought. It's just instinct. Raising taxes comes as natural as falling off a log for Ed and his liberal ilk. And they immediately forget it. It's just not something they think about. But meanwhile hundreds or thousands of hardworking people struggle with the consequences. Small businesses go broke. People on fixed incomes have to pay higher rent and more for almost everything they buy. Jobs are lost. And Ed and the liberals just think government ought to give more handouts to those struggling, rather than insure them an environment and opportunity to produce wealth.

    Liberalism is about creating a Dependent Class. Raising taxes is a means to an end in doing that. It comes so natural that Ed doesn't even give the harm he does a second thought.

    Now we do think most liberals, and maybe Ed, are ignorant about economics. We doubt they know the difference between the incidence of a tax and the tax rate or base. For example, they think the people whose name is on the property pay the tax. What they don't fully understand is that the incidence (who ultimately ends up paying the tax) means that people who own no, or little, real estate pay much of the tax on commercial property.

    Listen to Ed in the video. Pay particular attention to the way he begins his comments. It is a dismissive approach. Watch his body language and listen to the inflection in his voice. Turn the sound off and watch his hand. See if you detect any concern about the impact taxes have on his constituents. No, we think what you see is a politician simply saying what he thinks the audience wants to hear. He does not consider the honesty of his statement any more than he considers the consequences of his action. Ed is simply a politician.