Sales tax DOA at General Assembly
The Guilford County legislative delegation met today. Even if the commissioners pass a resolution asking for the ability to put a one-cent sales tax on the November ballot, the delegation will not file such a bill.
All six members who were around to discuss the sales tax about 25 minutes ago expressed some level of skepticism. Rep. Maggie Jeffus was trying to see if she had approval to go forward and was explaining the procedure for getting the bill filed.
Rep. Pricey Harrison was the first person to speak up against it.
"I do not approve so I'll save you the time," Harrison said. "I'm just fundamentally opposed to these regressive taxes."
Sales taxes are said to be regressive because they take a higher percentage of income from poor families than they do from the wealth.
Rep. Earl Jones and Katie Dorsett also said they didn't understand why the commissioners would come back for such a tax referendum only weeks after one for a 1/4 cent failed.
Because this is the legislative short session - a kind of over-time period meant to tweak the budget and take care of urgent business - local bills that do not have the support of their entire legislative delegation are not eligible for consideration.
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