Taxes and elections
Recent history tells us this about Greensboro’s property tax rate: It's not likely to rise during election years.
Council members have raised taxes four times since 1996. In fact, they voted Tuesday to raise the rate by 4.75 cents, one of the largest increases in a decade or more.
Of those four increases, only one of came during a year when their seats were at stake – in 1997, when the board raised the rate by a penny.
Since '97, the council has boosted taxes only in non-election years.
That may be true, says Mayor Keith Holliday. But the inference that it happened for political reasons is wrong, he says.
Tax increases have more to do with circumstances, he says. Past bonds come due and need paying off. The economy weakens and growth falls flat. The state jerks funding and the city has to make up for it.
Citizens trust most elected leaders not to make decisions based on votes, Holliday says.
"I’m not going to say people don’t think about that,” he said, "but that’s not doing the people’s work."
Last year – an election year – Holliday pushed hard to keep the tax rate flat. He ran unopposed.
Comments (3)
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You are astute to recognize and point out the relationship, notwithstanding the Mayor's comments.
Posted on June 30, 2006 4:36 PM
The Mayor was right about one thing, I trust the elected leaders will not make decisions based on my vote.
Past bonds? They deferred bond payments from last year to this year.
When the economy is bad is when you have a tax increase? I guess that explains the new budget.
Did the state pull 6 million from next year? I missed that.
The fact is, our taxes go up because of stupid spending.
Posted on June 30, 2006 6:46 PM
Margaret,
With your accurate observation, maybe people will understand better why I fought so hard for the 32 additional police officers in THIS year's budget. :) I knew there would be a tremendous push for no tax increase next year due to the pending election and could see them being deferred yet again.
Posted on July 2, 2006 10:16 PM