Let it snow...
The commissioners wrapped up their retreat at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Seven of the 11 commissioners showed up: all six Democrats and Republican Mike Winstead. There were about 20 Guilford County staff members on hand along with a handful of others, including Greensboro Fire Chief Johnny Teeters and Andy Burke and Dan Lynch from the Forward Greensboro Economic Development Partnership.
Retreats are a chance to float big ideas. Those ideas tend to generate a lot of questions.
But by far, the question of the day might be this: Would you be willing to pay an extra five-cents on your property tax rate every year for the next 20 years to help Guilford County build a capital project's trust fund?
(Update: To be clear, this would be an added 5-cents in the property tax rate. So, for the owner of a $100,000 house, that would mean an extra $50 a year in taxes.)
Democrat Paul Gibson hopes so and pitched that idea at the end of Saturday's session. The plan, he said, would create a $1 billion endowment that Guilford County could then use to pay for capital projects. Of course, for 20 years, the county would just be socking away money.
More to come in tomorrow's paper for sure and possibly here today, time and weather permitting.
Update (4:50 p.m.): Paul Gibson faxed me six pages on his proposal, which I'm giving to you as three PDF files:
Comments (8)
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NO!
Posted on January 29, 2005 10:04 PM
No!!
Posted on January 30, 2005 9:55 AM
Well...that's two "No" votes, I guess. Any "yes" votes out there?
If the weather hasn't messed things up too badly, I'll be out of town for a couple days. You folks talk amongst yourselves and I'll see you back here on Wednesday.
Posted on January 30, 2005 10:15 AM
Why didn't Mr. Gibson run on such an absurd platform?
NO!!
Posted on January 30, 2005 10:33 AM
I attended the Commissoner's Retreat on Saturday.
I say no to the .05 tax increase until Guilford COunty can figure out who owns what property. I just received tax statements for 21 different lots in Beaver Hills but I only own one of the lots. Who is monitoring the activities at the tax department? Who is holding these folks accountable? How will they possibly be able to oversee the increase when they can't oversee what they already have?
I have a lot to say about Bruce Davis's antagonist remark about the commissioers who did not attend the out of town meeting. If Mr. Davis is so concerned about commissioers being cooperative, they why did he present the absurd idea in the first place. It is quite obvious that Mr Davis is on some kind of power trip. Why does the board have the power to even take this kind of vote? Mr Davis indicated (as reported in News & Record) that weather would not be an issue for this meeting. Anyone who knows anything at all about Guilford County knows that weather could very well be an issue during January. Well, the weather WAS an issue. THe staff had no choice in the matter. Some were forced to attend and had to drive home in inclement weather. Mr Maxwell stated at a recent meeting that any employee that was in an accident due to this out of town meeting would be covered by Worker's Comp insurance. I'm sure that was comforting to employees who had to drive on the icy roads home. What about the 'ounce of prevention' theory? And besides, when inusrance claims are paid, rates go up and then TAXES GO UP. HELLO COMMISSIONERS! And let's don't forget, that when a claim is paid, A PERSON probably got HURT. I thought government was to be 'FOR THE PEOPLE' instead of commissioner's ego. If Mr Davis thought that the weather should not have scared anyone off, then why did the 'weather'continue to be an agenda item during the meeting, even to the point of deleting items that were intended to be discussed and hurrying ineffectively through other items. I requested an agenda on friday and planned to attend the 1:00 - 4:00 session. I arrived at 12:45 to hear them discussing weather and that the meeting was about to end. So I drove the long distance and risked the weather for 45 minutes of commissioner discussion. THe meeting adjourned at 1:30 which was 2.5 hours ahead of schedule BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER. Did Mr Davis get scared of the weather that he said should not have scared anyone off? Maybe Mr Davis should take a good look at himself before throwing stones at others.
Posted on January 30, 2005 1:00 PM
When has Guilford County EVER just socked away money. Last I heard they had a commitee trying to figure out how to spend BJ's inmate welfare fund as we speak. NO on the tax. If anything they ought to reduce it 5 cents
Posted on January 30, 2005 8:52 PM
Gail- I was given this explanation a couple of years ago when I got a tax bill on a property that I sold: you got tax bills for the lots in Beaver Hills because you were the owner of record as of 1/1/04. ALL counties in NC send tax bills to the owner of record as of 1/1 of the tax year pursuant to NC general statute. Most builders and other sellers simply forward the bills to the new owners as a courtesy. If by chance you don't know who or where to forward the bills, simply chuck 'em or send them back to the tax dept. The tax dept WILL get their money. They collect 99% every year.
Hope this helps.
Jim
Posted on January 30, 2005 9:28 PM
Better late than never....
No.
Posted on February 4, 2005 2:03 PM