NewsBreak! Articles > November 14, 2007
NC Voters Approve $582 Million for Construction
Voters across North Carolina last week approved a whopping $581.6 million for construction, mostly for Mecklenburg County schools. At the same time, voters in 16 counties resoundingly defeated a proposal that would have raised the real estate transfer tax as a way to generate badly needed infrastructure funding. The good news is that, in addition to construction funding approved, the issue of the infrastructure crisis continues to draw widespread media attention across the state concerning transportation, building, and water and sewer needs.
For example, The News & Observer reports that without a transfer tax or other revenue source, officials struggling with growth face a tough choice: raise existing taxes or let key services lag. Alternatives include raising property taxes, having a sales-tax referendum, cutting school costs significantly or accepting more crowded schools and congested roads.
"That's a real possibility, and I don't think it has dawned on enough people yet," said Ellis Hankins, executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities. There's a disconnect, Hankins said, between the public's unease about the pains of rapid growth and its unwillingness to approve new taxes to pay for upgrades to accommodate that development. For a look at The N&O story, go to: http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/764819.html.
In addition, some local governments are looking at putting more growth controls in place as a result of inadequate funding for infrastructure needs. A special blue-ribbon legislative task force began its work last week to make recommendations for highways and other needs for the short session of the NC General Assembly, which begins May 13, 2008. And some controlled-growth local candidates won handily at the polls recently, including in towns such as Cary and Wake Forest. Meantime, other related infrastructure stories in newspapers across the state since last Tuesday's election include:
- Voters' rejection of a new tax on the sale of real estate in 16 North Carolina counties last week means all property owners there might wind up paying higher taxes, a county government spokesman says on the "Headline Saturday" show airing last Saturday on WRAL-TV. Without a 0.4 percent "transfer tax" to help defray the costs of growth, commissioners in most counties -- including Johnston and Chatham, whose voters rejected the tax -- probably will have to rely more on raising property taxes instead, says Todd McGee, spokesman for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. For the full story, go to: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/saturday/city_state/story/767340.html.
- Rather than using an increased real estate transfer tax, strained counties in the Charlotte region are resigning themselves to other methods for balancing the books: property taxes, spending cuts and growth control rules:
www.charlotte.com/business/story/358913.html.
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