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February 1, 2006

A taxing situation

High Point has the 13th highest tax burden of cities in North Carolina that have more than 25,000 residents, according to a new study -- linked in a .pdf format -- from the John Locke Foundation's Center for Local Innovation. The property tax burden is 8th highest. The numbers are based on figures from the state treasurer's office for 2004.

Greensboro is 11th, overall and on the property tax list. Winston-Salem is 8th and 13th, respectively.

What's the Triad city with the lowest burden? Thomasville is 25th (of 26 cities in the state studied) on overall burden and 24th on property taxes. Jacksonville is the lowest in North Carolina on both.

The city with the heaviest burden is Charlotte, followed by Wilmington, Asheville, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary.

Among counties, Guilford ranks 10th on overall taxes and 9th on property taxes. Dare County has the heaviest burden followed by Currituck and Mecklenburg.

Triad counties by overall burden:
10. Guilford
12. Forsyth
32. Alamance
37. Rockingham
60. Surry
82. Davidson
84. Randolph
93. Stokes

So what's it all mean? It's tough to say.

Comparing one municipality or county to the next always takes some context -- as the CLI folks point out in the introduction. You have to take into account what services each city provides, what services they don't that another might, and whether or not you're still paying for that through some other means, such as a private trash company, or here in High Point we have one of the few government run electric utilities in the state. You might find coastal counties with much higher property tax burdens because of a preponderance of second homes -- the result is the property taxes from those second homes get divided across a smaller permanent population and you end up with the appearance of the individual paying more than they really do.

It's definitely interesting to compare though. I was a bit surprised to see that Guilford, Forsyth, Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem were all fairly comparable to each other. They were all within about $120 of each other. Other areas I've lived and worked there have been stark differences in the tax burdens from one town or county to the next.

Addendumn: If you're not familiar with the Locke Foundation, it's a conservative think tank based in Raleigh.

Posted by Jonathan Jones at February 1, 2006 9:43 AM

Comments

And what do you get for living in High Point and paying ridiculously high taxes (and ridiculously high water, sewer, and electric rates)?

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

Our elected officials continue to spend, spend, spend without any regard.

Who pays the lion's share? NORTH HIGH POINT

And, I don't even need to start talking about the poor education........

Posted by: Numbersgame at February 1, 2006 12:34 PM