Carter Wrenn posted on April 19, 2006 10:32
Someone once quipped the two greatest lies are ‘the checks in the mail,’ and ‘I’ll still love you in the morning.’ He might have added, ‘We’ll tax someone else.’
The great debate over ‘Impact Fees’ is underway in the Raleigh City Council.
The smallest amount being considered to increase this tax is 72%. Even that doesn’t suit Mayor Meeker, who wants to increase the tax a whopping 400% (to an average of $3,500 for a single family home).
The fiction here is that the politicians aren’t going to tax you, or me, or most homeowners – they’re going to tax ‘developers.’
But people who buy new houses are going to ultimately be the ones paying those new taxes – not developers. And those taxes are going to drive up the costs of housing. So, the next time there’s a property tax ‘reevaluation’ the government is probably going to decide your house is worth more – in part, because of that tax – and your property taxes are going up.
And what about the millions in new tax revenue those ‘fees’ will generate? Are they going to pay for schools? Or teachers? Mayor Meeker’s answer to that is still no.
The problem – fiscally – city government faces in Raleigh isn’t that tax revenues aren’t high enough. The problem is Mayor Meeker – and some of the other City Council members – are spending money like sailors on a binge. They’re not only spending millions on convention centers, they’re subsidizing four star hotels, five star restaurants and up-scale super markets with taxpayers’ money.
Before the City Council makes a case for raising taxes on developers, new homeowners or anyone else it needs to set better spending priorities and put its fiscal house in order.