Commissioners' majority refuses to guarantee lower property tax rate if the sales tax passes | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    This is yet another report of a phenomenal event that came out of the 3-12-12 County Commissioners meeting.

    Hood Richardson offered a motion to freeze the property tax rate of 51.5 cent per hundred dollar of assessed value. The motion, seconded by Stan Deatherage was defeated 4-3 with Jay McRoy voting for the motion along with Richardson and Deatherage and Langley, Cayton, Booth and Klemm voting against.

    The move was a ploy by Richardson to show what he considers to be the duplicity of the majority of the board. That majority, which included McRoy, voted previously to place an increase in the local sales tax of a quarter of a penny on the May ballot. They said that if the sales tax increase passed they would then reduce the property tax rate by an amount equal to the amount of increased revenue coming from the sales tax. Richardson's motion was simply a move to make that official.



    It was all a ploy. Richardson and Deatherage were simply trying to show that the promise to lower property taxes if the sales tax passes is not binding. And even if the motion had passed there is nothing to prevent the board from raising the property tax rate again while at the same time keeping the higher sales tax.

    Some suggested McRoy voted for the motion knowing that it would not pass, because he is up for re-election this year. He did not, however explain his reason for voting as he did.

    Klemm's vote was interesting. He voted not to guarantee a "no net increase" in taxes but then says that his "target is 51.5 cents "or less...it could be less." But he did not offer a motion to amend Richardson's motion to that effect.

    Other observers tell us that it is all a more or less moot point. "There is a snowballs chance in hell the voters will vote to raise the sales tax. I don't know anybody who believes that they will cut property taxes over time because the sales tax is higher. They'll just raise the sales tax AND the property tax and blame it on the people like McRoy tried to do about the school bond vote," one veteran of county politics said.

    Richardson commented afterwards saying: "I did not expect the motion to pass. I don't think the Gang of 5 will agree in advance to cut spending enough to avoid a tax increase. They have not in every chance they've had in the past and I don't expect them to be any more willing to cut spending next year than they have ever been. The only way you cut taxes is to reduce spending. The only way we're going to get less spending and lower taxes is to vote the spenders out of office. We have a chance to do just that in May and in November."