
{"id":4994,"date":"2009-02-26T09:27:26","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T17:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4994"},"modified":"2009-02-26T09:27:26","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T17:27:26","slug":"crowd-protests-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/02\/26\/crowd-protests-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowd protests taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><br \/>\nBy Rich Fowler<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>HILLSBOROUGH  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncertain how many people turned out Monday night at the Red Barn at Daniel Boone Village in Hillsborough for the Orange County Tax Revolt meeting. The line snaked around the barn and event organizers said they stopped counting the number of people both inside and out after hitting the 1,300 mark. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As it happens, the maximum the building is supposed to hold is 300. With 400 to 500 already stuffed inside, the Hillsborough Fire Marshal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office began turning folks away.<\/p>\n<p>Carrboro resident Bryan Berger, who started the movement with a sign in his front yard, was certainly pleased with the turnout, but disappointed more couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enter.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am just tickled pink to see so many people here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Berger said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and it just breaks my heart that we had to turn away hundreds of people who couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get in the building.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The event was sponsored and staffed by members of FreedomWorks, a national small-government, anti-tax movement chaired by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and those who did make it in the door heard former Hillsborough Mayor Joe Phelps give advice on appealing their tax assessments and former Orange County Commissioner Ben Lloyd blame local governments for high property tax burdens, a lack of economic development and wasteful spending. <\/p>\n<p>The crowd of mostly older residents warmed up to the message with applause and shouts of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Amen!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Gerald Talbert owns two gas stations in Orange County and came to the meeting because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrated with the taxes he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s paying. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been angry for years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Talbert said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153because it keeps going up and up and up. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have anything to show for it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>With the bad economy hurting his convenience store sales, and falling gas prices adding to his problems, Talbert said he will have to start setting aside money to pay his property taxes in July this year instead of September.<\/p>\n<p>Jane Hatley came from her home in the southern part of the county to find out how to appeal her tax revaluations. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been retired from UNC Hospitals since 1993 and lives on a fixed income. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have to do something for my grandchildren and their children,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hatley said.<br \/>\nThe next meeting is set for March 16; but because of the large turnout on Monday night, organizers haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet decided on a location.<br \/>\n\u00c2\u00ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rich Fowler Staff Writer HILLSBOROUGH \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncertain how many people turned out Monday night at the Red Barn at Daniel Boone Village in Hillsborough for the Orange County Tax Revolt meeting. The line snaked around the barn and event organizers said they stopped counting the number of people both inside and out after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4995,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4994\/revisions\/4995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}