Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2020 11:58:06 -0500
From: Tarus Balog
Subject: Proposed Sales Tax Increase
Gang:
It was on the Chatlist that I first heard about the proposed sales tax increase and now I’ve seen a bunch of “Vote No” signs popping up around town (it looks like they are sponsored by the Chatham County GOP).
I am eager to hear why this is such a bad idea. I don’t know of anyone who likes to pay taxes but in order to have a government you have to pay for it somehow, and no matter what method you use you can consider it to be a tax.
At the moment I can think of three main types of taxes: property, income and sales. All three have pluses and minuses, but I kind of prefer the sales tax since it taxes consumption: i.e. those people who consume more things pay more tax. Seems the most fair.
The NC State sales tax rate is 4.75% and counties add anywhere from 2% to 2.75% on top of that, for a sales tax range of 6.75% to 7.5%.[1]
Currently, these are the rates for Chatham and surrounding counties:
Chatham: 6.75%
Alamance: 6.75%
Orange: 7.5%
Durham: 7.5%
Wake: 7.25%
Harnett: 7.0%
Lee: 7.0%
Moore: 7.0%
Randolph: 7.0%
Raising the sales tax to 7% would bring our county much more in line with our neighbors and shouldn’t negatively impact sales in the area.
Just to put it in perspective, that 0.25% increase is equivalent to a quarter for every $100 spent. I’ve seen people walk by a quarter on the ground in the Food Lion parking lot and not bother to pick it up (I am not one of those people [grin]).
I’m just curious as to why this is such a big deal. Seems to be low impact to individuals, high value to the county, and as far as taxes go, pretty fair.
-T
[1] https://www.ncdor.gov/sales-and-use-tax-rates-effective-april-1-2019