Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 11:13:41 -0600 (GMT-06:00)
From: Bill Crawford
Subject: GOP position on tax revenue
Virginia Penley has been trying to portray the Chatham GOP as “fixated on stopping any efforts to provide alternative revenue sources”. This is bunk, and it doesn’t take much effort to look back at the period 2011-14, the only time in more than a century that the Republican Party had any say in government in Chatham, to find a refutation of that.
The Bock/Petty/Stewart Board often acknowledged that one of the realities of government was that it got a little more expensive every year, as inflation factored in and because it was staffed by good people who often got raises for their continued service.
What they tried to do was find a way to raise tax revenue in a way that didn’t always have to fall directly on the homeowner and the consumer, by trying to make it easier for business to come to Chatham. The WalMart on the county line would have never opened under Democrat governance, and that store brought in millions in tax dollars – enough to keep property tax increases at bay for years afterward.
The Lucier Board before 2011 was downright hostile to new business. Regulations, micromanagement and more had given Chatham the reputation of being “closed for business”. I seem to remember that increased WalMart revenue going to education, public safety and other essential county services, without raising taxes on homeowners or consumers.
Vote NO on the sales tax increase on March 3rd. Then, in November, vote for Jay Stobbs, Jimmy Pharr and Andy Wilkie for Commissioner, and take the county back to a level of common sense we had for those four short years.
The GOP is not against government, or the tax revenue needed to make it work. We just seem to have different notions about how to go about getting new revenue than local Democrats. Their first option always seems to be to pick your pockets, instead of using controlled growth to share the burden. Voting down the sales tax increase is the first step to fixing that. Get it done, folks!
Bill Crawford