Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:40:20 -0400
From: hamchatcounty
Subject: Chatham Habitat for Humanity advocates another tax increase for Chatham residents?
Saw an interesting series of tweets this afternoon from the Chatham Habitat for Humanity that peaked my interest.
It seems that after a huge 7% property tax increase, our local Chatham Habitat is hoping for yet another tax increase.
7% property tax increase? you ask. When did this happen?
Well the news was buried in a county press release that claimed that “Chatham County Commissioners Adopt FY20 County Budget.” (Chatlist # 6438)
What the headline should have been was “Chatham commissioners’ 7% property tax increase hits affordable housing hard” or “Chatham County’s 7% property tax increase to hit women, minorities, and elderly hardest.”
Chatham County citizens were not happy with this sizable tax increase and expressed their opinions on Facebook on the Chatham NC community group page.
Well, it appears that the Chatham County commissioners are seriously considering placing an additional tax budget on Chatham County citizens by increasing the local sales tax. For what reason? Apparently, simply because they can. There’s no real demonstarted need for it. After a large 7% property tax increase you think the Chatham County Commissioners would stop.
According to a newspaper article, Darrell Butts, a budget analyst with the county manager’s office, told the board in February that the tax would have brought in $1.6 million for the county if applicable in 2017 and slightly less last year. “It’s a dependable source of revenue, fairly dependable,” Butts said. “It’s not one-time, it’s going to be there year-after-year.”
Translation for Chatham County citizens: “We can suck another $1.6 million out of you every year. Forever.”
Chatham Habitat for Humanity claims on their web site ( http://chathamhabitat.org/advocacy/ ) that they are NOT advocating this tax increase.
How insincere can they get? How gullible do they think the good citizens of Chatham County are? Read through the “Advocacy” page and you’ll see that the Chatham Habitat of Humanity is basically saving. “We, at Habitat humanity say we don’t advocate another tax increase, but we do want to get a piece of that annual tax if it happens [wink, wink]”
Let’s all band together and work to nip this in the bud. Let’s put an end to this silly talk about more tax increases.
Join me in boycotting this organization –
* Don’t shop in the ReStore (You can go a PTA Thrift Store and support our schools)
* Don’t donate goods to the Restore. (The Chatham PTA Thrift Stores will take your donations)
* Don’t donate any money or attend any Habitat fundraisers. (After all they are hoping to get a piece of the bigger Chatham County tax pie.)
* Stop volunteering in any way at all (Find other organizations that you can help out. There are non-profits out there that don’t support raising your taxes)
* Visit their facebook page and click on the “leave a message” button and let them them know you don’t approve of their “advocacy” for yet another tax increase.
* Call them at (919) 542-0794 and tell them it is inappropriate for a “non-profit” to advocate for tax increases.
* Tell your family and friends about your choice. Tell them to tell their friends.
Let’s show Habitat how much losing the goodwill of the Chatham County community really costs. They might just find that it’s a whole lot more than the share of a sales tax increase they hope to gain.
Also, instead of using the email template that habitat has provided on their web site, http://chathamhabitat.org/advocacy/ go ahead and send your own email to the commissioners and let them know how you feel about another tax increase.
Remind them (in a polite fashion) that raising $1.6 million from Chatham residents just because they can does not make it right.
Chatham Habitat for Humanity also includes a link to to a NC Article 46 tax referendum map with the implication that “hey look at all the surrounding counties around Chatham that have approved the increased sales tax.” [NOTE: Alamance and Moore don’t have this tax}
When I look at the map I see something else instead. I see that about 73 NC counties put the sales tax increase up for a voter referendum and only 31 counties approved the tax increase. Guess most rational NC citizens have a lick of sense.
FYI: I have saved a copy of the Habitat advocacy web page. This is in case they decide to take it down and try to bury it in a memory hole.
Lastly. Have you ever wondered if more people could afford to live comfortably in Chatham County if the people we elected didn’t keep raising taxes and making it more expensive to live in this county?
David H.