Like elsewhere in the state, voters in Orange County overwhelmingly rejected a proposed 0.4 percent land transfer tax.
The ballot referendum was defeated by a margin of 28,053 to 14,288, or 66 percent to 34 percent.
Real estate and homebuilder groups spent more than $205,000 through the end of April toward defeating the measure. A pro-transfer tax group spent only about $2,000 in advocating for the effort. And though the county allocated $100,000 for an education campaign, many observers expect the actual money spent to be lower than that, given the short amount of time between the decision to add the tax to the ballot and the election.
In an email response to The Citizen, Mark Zimmerman, who owns a local real estate brokerage and is spokesman for anti-tax group Citizens for a Better Orange County, said the results were clear.
Sixty-six percent of the county’s voters, he said “agreed that the County needs to find another way to support our wonderful schools and parks. The vote followed a vigorous debate and an unprecedented county education campaign. Our already well educated voters were very well informed on the issue, and they joined voters in 19 other counties who have overwhelmingly said a land transfer tax is not the way to raise new revenue.â€
County Commissioner Barry Jacobs saw the results differently.
“When the biggest financial bullies in North Carolina government are out to defeat you,†he said, “they will.â€
Jacobs said the county did not have enough time to educate voters on the tax nor did it see sufficient success in articulating what the tax was about. He said the tax is a “less-painful†way to cover the county’s growing need for new schools and parks. “The property tax,†he said, “is the real home tax.â€
Jacobs said the commissioners will meet and discuss the issue and may decide to put the tax back on the ballot in November or try to put a sales tax on the ballot instead, an idea they rejected earlier this year.
The transfer tax and the sales tax were the two routes given counties to make up for reductions in state funding for counties as part of last year’s budget.