The Turnip Taxpayer Syndrome
County Manager Harry Jones’ proposed tax hike budget is taking what has become the county government’s catch cliché – doing more with less – and twisting it to a new mantra of grabbing more from less.
As Jeff Taylor notes earlier this week, Jones’ proposed budget and its $907.1 million revaluation harvest of property tax revenue exceeds the $802.4 million hauled in by the county during boom times, before the recession hammer fell.
That was back when the county was still humming along with a manageable 4.8% unemployment rate and government was awash in $247.5 million from collected sales tax.
Fast-forward to March 2011, as Jones preps to unveil a budget that calls for government funding levels on par with the county circa FY09. Only now Mecklenburg’s unemployment rate hovers at 10%, nearly 32,000 jobs shy of pre-recession levels and with 23,000 more folks standing in the unemployment line. The take from sales tax for 2010, meanwhile, had plummeted some $61 million, while personal incomes for Char-Meck residents by 2009 had tumbled more than 5 percent from pre-recession levels.
So naturally now, with double-digit unemployment still battering the county, gas prices pinching wallets, prices on the rise for everything from food to clothing, and the local real estate market still in the tank, Jones rolls with a budget that relies on collecting more revenue, leading to higher property taxes for 57 percent of households, while Commissioner Chair Jennifer Roberts ups the ante and calls for an even more painful leeching of taxpayers.
Jones and Roberts dig to pull more money from pockets where there is less, literally trying to squeeze blood from the proverbial turnip.
Guess who is the turnip?
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