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NCACC <br />NCACC <br />P.O. Box 1488 <br />Raleigh, NC 27602-1488 <br />Tel: (919) 715-2893 <br />Fax: (919) 733-1065 <br />E-mail: <br />ncacc@ncacc.ora <br />Five counties see sales tax approved <br />By Todd McGee <br />Communications Director <br />Page 1 of 4 <br />While the defeat of land transfer tax referendums in North Carolina garnered headlines <br />in early November, often overlooked was the fact that voters in Catawba, Martin, Pitt, <br />Sampson and Surry counties passed local-option sales tax referendums. <br />"The additional revenue will help these counties distribute the burden of paying for <br />growth and infrastructure needs by giving them a more diversified revenue stream," <br />said Association Executive Director David F. Thompson. "In 2007-08, 48 counties, <br />representing nearly 70 percent of our state's population, raised their property tax rate <br />- the real home tax. Counties are seeking alternative revenues so that we can lessen <br />the need for continual property tax increases." <br />Voters in Catawba, Martin, Pitt and Sampson counties overwhelmingly approved the <br />measures, while Surry eked out a close victory that wasn't decided until a handful of <br />provisional ballots were added. Measures were narrowly defeated in Greene, <br />Columbus and Cumberland counties. In unofficial results, Greene's effort lost by 33 <br />votes, while Columbus came up 151 votes short. <br />Several counties that were successful had been making their case for local-option <br />sales taxes well before the General Assembly actually gave counties the ability to <br />implement the quarter-cent increase. Officials in these counties said that citizens <br />understood their needs because they had already been advocating for additional <br />revenues as an alternative to increased property taxes. <br />Sampson County Manager Scott Sauer credited a unified front in his county. Sauer <br />said that the Board of Commissioners and both school boards (Sampson County and <br />Clinton City) supported the measure, as did the eight municipalities in the county. <br />"The credit goes to the Board of Commissioners and the two boards of education for <br />their work starting several years ago developing a capital program and putting the <br />word out that we needed to build schools," Sauer said. "At the same time, we needed <br />to build a jail, and we had some other county facilities that were going to be under <br />construction. In order to accomplish everything in the plan, it was $135 million." <br />Sauer said the county adopted its capital plan in 2005 and had spent the past two and <br />a half years educating citizens about the county's needs. Once the General Assembly <br />granted counties the revenue authorities in late July, the county immediately ramped <br />up its public information efforts, printing a brochure explaining the needs and <br />distributing it to churches and stores throughout the county. The county also inserted <br />copies of the brochure in the payroll envelopes of county employees and school <br />system employees the week before the election. <br />The county had identified early on that it would require an eventual increase of 30 <br />cents in the property tax rate to meet all the needs. <br />The quarter-penny sales tax will generate roughly $911,000 a year for the county, <br />which equates to about 3 cents on the property tax rate. Sauer says the additional <br />revenue, along with the Medicaid relief and the county's share of lottery proceeds will <br />help reduce the overall property tax increase need to about 21 cents. <br />1, . , nom..-, , <br />