
{"id":5009,"date":"2009-02-26T09:55:18","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T17:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5009"},"modified":"2009-02-26T09:55:18","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T17:55:18","slug":"common-sense-and-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/02\/26\/common-sense-and-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Common sense and taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By tradition, we take the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revolt\u00e2\u20ac\u009d very seriously here in Orange County. The practice goes back prior to the founding of the country; and thanks in part to a little rebellion that brewed up in Orange and Alamance counties in the mid 1700s, the groundwork for a revolution was set.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>So when those orange signs proclaiming another Orange County tax revolt started to pop up, folks were indeed curious. Turns out that the group responsible, while it has some local members and interest, is not exactly native to our area, nor is it focused on the recent revaluation.<\/p>\n<p>No, Freedom Works is a GOP-organized effort to recruit new members to the party and to instill in it a more libertarian philosophy when it comes to taxes. The group is led by, among others, former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who may or may not have ever heard of Orange County. As the Republican Party strives to rekindle its fires and deal with the drubbing it took in the past election, the group and others like it have been organizing various tea parties and tax rebellions across the country. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s their right.<\/p>\n<p>And there is nothing wrong with citizens worried about rising taxes banding together and voicing a collective opinion. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened before, albeit without so many signs.<br \/>\nBut there is a lot of misinformation out there and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to take a shot at a few corrections.<\/p>\n<p>First, revaluations happen on a regular cycle. The last one was in 2005.<br \/>\nThe next one is in 2013. Second, the recent revaluations for residential properties average 22 percent countywide. The county and the towns will start their budget processes by knocking down the tax rate by that amount to keep the revaluation \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revenue neutral.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So if your house increased in value by more than 22 percent, you will be paying more taxes. The reason you will be paying more taxes is that your house is worth more money. If you feel like the value of your home rose too high too fast, you are encouraged to file an appeal. <\/p>\n<p>As they do every year, the towns and the county will review their budgets and decide whether to raise taxes. No budget has been drafted yet and no tax increase has been proposed. Drafts of the budgets begin to emerge in April and there is a series of hearings to give citizens an opportunity to examine and discuss the items and any proposed increase. The budgets are voted on in June in time for the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1. This process is neither a mystery nor a conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>What can be a little mysterious are the details of those budgets. Finding places to trim are not as easy as saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cut government waste.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Your waste may be someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s safety net, the neighborhood down the street\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s curb and gutter repair, another fire truck or a competitive salary for a school nurse or police officer. There is little that any local government does in Orange County that could be described as fluff. There are corners that can be nibbled at in traditional areas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like travel expenses, lunches and office supplies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it is difficult to find in them even the roughly $1.25 million that it would take to cut a penny off the tax rate.<\/p>\n<p>In the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, about half of the money we pay in taxes goes to education. In the case of the towns, providing the police and fire departments and garbage pickup represents the bulk of ongoing expenses. Each town has focused in the past few years on improving infrastructure, which, naturally, costs money.<\/p>\n<p>We welcome any ideas on how to keep costs and taxes down. We encourage those of you willing to take a serious crack at budget cutting to send your thoughts in as a letter to the editor.<\/p>\n<p>For those of you who say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enough,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to know \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enough what\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? <\/p>\n<p>What do we have too much of? What should we curtail? Where should we cut?<\/p>\n<p>Here are the ground rules \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the same ones the commissioners and town leaders are playing under: You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t alter the state or federal constitutions, overturn any court rulings or obtain special legislation from the General Assembly.<br \/>\nHave at it, tax revolters. We welcome your leadership and sacrifice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By tradition, we take the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revolt\u00e2\u20ac\u009d very seriously here in Orange County. The practice goes back prior to the founding of the country; and thanks in part to a little rebellion that brewed up in Orange and Alamance counties in the mid 1700s, the groundwork for a revolution was set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009","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=5009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5010,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions\/5010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}