The
Dare County Board of Commissioners passed a $102 million budget for the
next fiscal year that requires no increase in property taxes at its
meeting on Wednesday, July 17.
And then the board members turned around and denounced the N.C.
Senate’s budget plan, which would take $10 to $12 million in sales tax
revenue from future county budgets and cause the county to raise taxes
by as much as 8 cents or to drastically slash employees and programs.
The board instructed county manager Bobby Outten to craft a budget for
the fiscal year that begins July 1 that maintains but doesn’t expand
the current service level and works within existing revenue sources.
Under the proposal, Dare County’s property tax rate of 43 cents per $100 dollars of valuation remains the same.
The 2016 budget includes $3 million for the creation of a new
special revenue fund that would provide the local match for state and
federal funds for inlet maintenance. Under the budget plan, $1.25
million of that will come from anticipated surplus from the current
budget year, $1 million will be transferred from the beach nourishment
fund, and $750,000 will come from the anticipated sale of the old EMS
helicopter.
Under pressure from the county Board of Education and citizens who
spoke at a June 1 public hearing, the commissioners found another
$400,000 in the budget — without increasing it — to partially fund an
anticipated $514,000 increase in salaries for starting teachers
mandated by the General Assembly.
With the budget out of the way, board Chairman Bob Woodard turned the
conversation to the effort in Raleigh, led by Sen. Harry Brown, a
Republican from Onslow County, to change the way the state distributes
sales taxes to the counties.
The current formula distributes sales tax based 75 percent on point of
sale and 25 percent on population. Under the changes, a new
formula would be phased in over four years based 80 percent on
population and 20 percent on point of sale.
Brown has said that the plan will benefit poor, rural counties whose residents travel to larger urban centers to shop.
However, it would hurt Dare County, which has a relatively small
year-round population of 35,000 but whose population swells during the
tourist season. Visitors spend money in the county, and a portion of
the money is returned to the county — as the point of sale — in order
to fund the additional services and infrastructure needed to
accommodate tourists.
Woodard read a letter that he had drafted on behalf of the board to
Sen. Phil Berger, Senate President Pro Tempore, in which he condemned
the attempt to redistribute the sales tax revenue.
“Our Board is vehemently opposed to the proposals that are being
discussed by the Legislature,” the letter says. “These misguided
efforts have been incorrectly titled as ‘Tax Fairness Acts’ and ‘Simple
and Fair’ plans, when in fact they are neither simple nor fair.”
The plan, he wrote, would have a “disastrous” and “debilitating” effect
on Dare County by taking away $10 to $12 million from the general fund
— more than 10 percent. This, Woodward writes, would cause a major
reduction of essential services or a “walloping” ad valorem tax
increase.
“Let there be no doubt, either of these would create a budgetary
tsunami that would ripple throughout North Carolina’s Outer Banks
ruining our families, small businesses, and
communities,” the letter reads.
Woodard notes that over the last 10 years, county officials calculate
that Dare has contributed more than $80 million in sales tax revenue
and has been able to do so because of tourism, which brings about
300,000 visitors in the summer months.
“It is these out-of-state visitors that generate the sales taxes
collected by Dare County, which have been generously shared with other
counties and municipalities,” the letter says.
“As one of America’s premier tourism destinations, Dare County has been
able to attract millions of people to North Carolina each year,” the
letter continues. “While North Carolina benefits from the dollars these
visitors bring, it is Dare County that is left with the responsibility
to fund water plants and provide law enforcement, fire protection,
emergency medical services, and other visitor driven needs.”
The proposal would “unfairly punish counties” such as Dare that depend
on tourism and threaten “core conservative values that are needed to
promote and sustain a business-friendly, free market economy throughout
North Carolina.”
The board unanimously passed a motion to send the letter to Berger.
However, this morning, the Senate passed its budget, which includes the sales tax redistribution plan.
“It’s not too late to stop this destructive plan for Dare County,” Woodard said this morning in a statement.
The Senate budget now moves to a conference committee and then must be
approved by the House of Representatives. Woodard urged all who are
concerned to contact state leaders to object to the sales tax
redistribution plan. Dare County is represented by Sen. Bill Cook and
Rep. Paul Tine. Contact information for every legislator can be found
at www.ncleg.net.
In other action, the commissioners:
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