Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

FROM THE EDITOR

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Staff

Holding the line
This being the wind-up of budget season, there’s been a lot of talk about the tax system, tax rates and taxes in general, including some well-founded criticism.

One presumption is that by not increasing taxes this year, the towns and the county are treading water – balancing declining revenues with cuts in either operations or ambitions.

In Chapel Hill, that meant a potential delay in the long-term goal of adding to the public library, until the council’s approval last week of a bond sale in September to pay for the new addition.

In Carrboro, the past couple of years have involved further delays to long-sought capital projects – improvements to parks and sidewalks and major road repairs.

Both towns held hiring to a minimum and this year offered only minimal pay increases.

The county, a creature much more at the mercy of Raleigh, has had to take more drastic steps, as it was hit with the double whammy of flagging revenues and an increase in debt burden and new operating costs for recently opened facilities.

The results in all three cases may seem like treading water; but if you’re a teacher who’s lost a job, a social worker with an impossible case load or a town employee trying to make ends meet, it’s more of a sinking feeling.

There is some thought that a turnaround is happening, but it is doubtful that will change the game plan anytime soon. The backlog of what’s been put off is long and includes a lot of deferred maintenance. It also will be a while before even critically important departments are staffed up again and deficiencies in areas like emergency services are addressed fully.

And we’re going to keep talking taxes. In addition to this fall’s legislative and local races, which will no doubt feature plenty of revenue discussions, the ballot also includes a referendum for a proposed hike in the county’s sales tax. This should spur another discussion of the fairness of sales taxes, the residential tax burden, the need for more commercial space and at least a few thousand utterances of the phrases “buy local” and “retail leakage.”

A Century Ago
We just received notice of another 100th anniversary. They seem to be piling up. Board of aldermen member Jacquie Gist drew our attention to this phenomenon a couple months back, expressing her curiosity over all the foundings that took place a century or so back.

With Carrboro’s 100th just around the corner, and several local churches and institutions at or near the same mark, it’s evident that something was going on back then.

So, what was it? We know some of you have the history bug and are digging around in the local archives for various treasures of the past. If any of you have some thoughts as to what it was that spurred this cascade of centennials, please send us a missive with your findings to editor@carrborocitizen.com

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme