With the fate of the transfer tax not even decided, CH town manager Roger Stancil is already calling for an 11% tax rate hike for Chapel Hill. He warns that property tax rate increases of 3 to 10 cents (per $100 valuation) will not be uncommon in local jurisdictions. (And my guess is that this is a trend that will continue for the forseeable future. )
http://tinyurl.com/45cqlc
Issues:
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Comments
Had the transfer tax passed
What was the intent?
Good question
The transfer tax was voted
The transfer tax was voted down in what effectively amounted to a Democratic primary. I don't think any amount of time would have saved it.
Excellent point
I agree with this. I also heard some anti-tax activists saying that the Commissioners had "rushed" the tax to the ballot in May, because they didn't want the public to have enough time to be exposed to the negative sides of the tax.
It is not like the anti-tax advocates wanted this to be on the ballot in May, in fact, they wanted it to be on the ballot for November.
Perhaps
What a drag
More on the Budget
It's worth the time to take a look at the the Manager's 2008-2009 Recommended Budget. For one thing, it's clear that debt service is the big driver - debt that we said that we needed/wanted in order to build new facilities. I found the Manager's budget logic to be sound, just as I did last year. To avoid raising taxes last year when we should have, we went deep into our fund balance.
Earlier in March, I wrote:
Now, Debt Service for FY09 is $5,670,830; 1 cent equals $ 582,000, so the dedicated tax needed to fund DS is 9.8 cents. In order to get to that 5.9 cent increase to balance the budget, he lowers the current 47.4 general fund rate to 43.5 cents.
So I ask, if we had taken action last year, would we have had to reduce the allocation to the general fund by some 8%? And remember - it had nothing to do with the election! Wink, wink :-)
As the Manager says in his report (without pulling any punches):
So, save your pennies so that you will have the dollars needed to pay all of your new taxes!
Let me ask a dumb
Let me ask a dumb question. If we weren't able to afford these new facilities then why did we build them?
It's being portrayed as if the tax increase is going to be used to pay for debt service. But that's not true. If it were true then all of the tax increase would go to paying the debt until the debt was gone and then the tax rate would revert to earlier levels. Instead we all know that this is going to be a permanent tax rate increase. After the debt service is paid then the town will spend the extra money for something else. And then eventually the town will again spend more than it should and then they'll come to us again saying "We have to raise tax rates."
I've lived in Chapel Hill for a long time but it was just two years ago that I bought a home here. I've never paid close attention to local politics here or other places I've lived but I've often heard people complain about property taxes and I never gave it much thought. Now I know exactly what they mean.
First I was shocked to see how much local taxes would be. They're 5% of my GROSS pay! And I didn't buy an espeically expensive house relative to my income. And remember, this doesn't include any federal and state taxes. 5%! That's just crazy.
Well okay, I thought, at least it'll be 7 years or whatever until my house is re-assessed and the bill goes up again and my income will be going up in the meantime, so while 5% is a lot, I'll get used to it.
But then the county proposes the land transfer tax. Yes, I would only pay that when I sold my house someday but in effect it is a tax that accrues annually. At least I avoided that because it was defeated at the ballot box, although I hear people saying the county will raise taxes anyway
And now it's an 11% property tax increase imposed by the town of Chapel Hill
So we're now two years into my tenure of home ownership. Town taxes are going up 11%. The county sounds like it's going to raise taxes. And we're two years closer to when my house is re-assessed, at which time I assume there will be a big increase in my property taxes since it will have been several years since my house was assessed. I feel like I'm under siege. And with regards to local government I've grown very jaded very quickly. I already knew that state and federal politicians spend public money like drunken sailors but for some naive reason it hadn't occurred to me that local politicians do the same.
The next time we want a new aquatics center or a public library expansion or whatever can we please just wait until we can afford it and then buy it?
You just described why I
You just described why I purchased my house slightly outside the Chapel Hill city limits. The high cost of taxation in Chapel Hill relative to the benefits I would receive from those taxes completely turned me off when I was shopping for a home.
The previous poster is right, however. Don't let your disgust turn you off to being involved. Voice your concerns!
Enjoy the drive (@ $4 per
It's much easier to live
It's much easier to live out of the city limites and get to places than to live in the city and crawl along down the street, even if you're on a bus.
And hey, even at $4 a gallon, gas is still cheaper than milk!
Considering that I pay about
Considering that I pay about $800 / year on gas to get to and from work, I don't think your argument really holds up. I'd pay slightly less on gas if I lived within Chapel Hill, but I would pay thousands on taxes and thousands more on the price of the home.
I'll happily pay a few extra bucks on gas -- at least I'm getting a direct benefit from it.
Like what?
Transportation, of
Transportation, of course.
I'd be buying gasolene for transportation whether I lived in the city limits or outside them. If I lived inside the city limits, I'd be buying slightly less. But the additional taxes I would be paying inside the city limits would far exceed the cost of the extra gas I have buy because I live outside them.
welcome to home ownership.
welcome to home ownership.
I suggest you get involved and contact the Town Council and share your opinions. They are a very dedicated group and they want citizen input. They don't know what we want unless we tell them. They are a very hardworking group and very receptive and accessible.
up, up and away - hikes not limited to CH
As predicted, there's more evidence that tax rates for all of Orange are going up. http://tinyurl.com/47zrhv
The implication of Barry Jacobs comment seems to be that OC property taxes would have to rise 6.4 cents just to keep up with rising health care, benefits and debt service costs.
And I question whether any of the local governments are adequately factoring in permanently rising energy and fuel costs.
Edit: Note that none of the reasons for the tax hikes would have been helped at all by the LTT. None.
The LTT would certainly help
Yep
Personnel Budgets
Anyone look at the personnel budgets in the manager's proposed budget?
I am a supporter of Public Arts--especially in rural areas where free art is not abundant as it is in a college town. However, I am deeply disturbed by our town's decision to hire an "art czar" for what appears to be roughly a $60,000.00 salary plus benefits while cutting the police personel budget by $59,185.78 from the 2007-2008 revised budget. This proposed budget provides for no increase in the number of police officers in the town(despite the number of home break-ins doubling in the last year per the CH News last week) and doesn't seem to provide for any cost of living adjustment or pay raises for the police officers currently serving our town.
All this and an 11% tax increase?! I'm all for hiring an "art czar"--but not until we build our business tax base and can afford it!
Welcome to the Hill
I love Chapel Hill, but I'm really glad I grew up out in the County. I can see why the town needs an art czar -- if I'm not mistaken, 1% of all new building budgets have to go toward public art. Ever notice all the statues and benches and stuff outside of town hall or the police station? Just sitting there doing nothing. Million dollar building? $10,000 art. I shudder to think how much was spent when UNC stopped leasing all of those offices for $1 to the town. There were a *lot* of town offices that needed to be relocated. That translated into several hundred thousand dollars' worth of art that needs managing, if I recall.
-Cameron