Pick your tax increase
Guilford isn't the only county considering a sales-tax increase. The folks over in Catawba County like the idea too. (Hat tip to the ROD).
But Catawba needs help from its state legislators to install a sales-tax hike. Included in the county's 2007 legislative agenda:
The first piece related to the sales tax and introducing legislation that would ask the General Assembly to consider a one cent sales tax increase. This one cent sales tax would yield about $13 million for Catawba County revenue and it would avoid ten and one-half cents on the tax rate. Significant revenue will be needed for jail construction debt and operational costs, school construction and additional funds for teacher supplements.
Ten and one-half cents on the property-tax rate! Sounds like another county I know.
But the sales-tax idea is going nowhere with the honorables.
Some Guilford commissioners have been floating a sales-tax increase to pay for a new jail. But if they can't get the local legislative delegation to take it up with folks in Raleigh, commissioners will have to raise property taxes through voter-approved bond debt or certificates of participation, a type of debt that doesn't require say-so from voters.
Commissioners will likely get the latest and greatest price tag for the new jail tomorrow. Then the debate over how to pay for it will really heat up.