Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:09:18 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: Linda Allred Cooper
Subject: Amenities, Development and Last Thoughts from Forrest
Forrest: You Are Hilarious!!!!! I laughed till I cried over your tirade about mashed potatoes and creamed corn. I agree – the horrors must stop!! I have printed it out and posted it in my office to enjoy over and over!
Karen: Have you ever considered the fact that so many people can no longer afford to pay the taxes on their land and that is why they are selling it? Property taxes are out of control. I know many who owned large tracts of land in Chatham who have either sold off portions or sometimes all of their land because they can no longer afford to pay the taxes. Some of this land had been “in the family” for several generations. Children and grandchildren of the land owners don’t want the land because of the same reason – they can’t afford to pay the property taxes.
Sometimes this means selling a few acres at a time in an attempt to raise the needed money to pay the taxes for a few years at a time. Sometimes the landowner sees the “writing on the wall” and just sells everything knowing there is no need to drag it out – no one in the family will want the tax burden. Why should an elderly couple hang on to the land, struggling each year to pay the taxes, and leave it to children or grandchildren in an estate settlement when they know those children and grandchildren do not want and/or can’t afford the tax burden. So they sell. After all – what would you rather leave for your children and grandchildren – a tract of land that carries an out-of-control tax burden – or a monetary inheritance that can be spent at the gas pump, grocery store, doctor, pharmacy, college, etc.?
Which brings me back to my original post in which I mentioned the NEED to attract businesses to Chatham to increase the tax base.
So you – my anti-development friends – are one of the main reasons – possibly the biggest reason – land is being sold to developers!!! You advocate and do all you can do to limit development. Not control it. After all, controlling it would mean designing areas of the county where business development would be encouraged such as the area north of Pittsboro at the bypass. Keeping the development north of town seems sensible to me. Downtown Pittsboro can remain “as is”.
No – you limit development. Advocate against development. Do all you can do to stop all development. And by doing this, you force land to be sold to pay those taxes that development would have lowered and/or alleviated.
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