Update: Shaw on the budget, Yow and penny sales tax
Today we talked to Republican Linda Shaw to see what she's got in mind heading into tomorrows Guilford County 2008-09 budget workshop. She said that the bonds that just passed will have an impact on the process.
Mostly that means the budget will likely have a built-in property tax rate increase, possibly up to 3.7 cents per $100 valuation.
Beyond that, Shaw said, she expects a good number of cuts to happen across the budget. Though Shaw wouldn't say where, because she needs to hear from the separate departments first.
Meanwhile, other commissioners plan to lobby for funds in other areas. Democrats Melvin "Skip" Alston and Carolyn Coleman have both hinted to Scoop their plans to seek funds for the nonprofits. But neither would say what ones.
Is that to say that commissioners are saving the additions and subtractions for the camera?
Speaking of the camera, Shaw said she talked to fellow Republican Billy Yow after we ran this last weekend about a short exchange at the end of the last Board of Commissioners meeting. Yow called it a joke, others called it racist.
Shaw said she knew that Yow was kidding, and that's not too different from what other commissioners do.
"He was joking, and everyone does it," Shaw said, adding that other commissioners cut up in the bathrooms and backrooms of the county halls.
And she backs the one-cent sales tax that Yow wants to put on the November ballot for schools.
"This one cent was all going to the schools," she said, "and if people know that, then the burden is going to be shared equally. Not just by property owners."
Shaw said she contacted Rep. Laura Wiley to aske for her support on the sales tax, which received a tepid reaction from the local delegation on the General Assembly last week.
And next week, Shaw plans to visit the local legislators in Raleigh to pitch the tax.
"All I’m asking is to give people the right to vote on the ballot," Shaw said, adding that the campaign for a penny sales tax would be much more intense than what ran for the quarter-cent tax, which failed miserably on in the primary vote on May 6.
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