Both the News and Record and the Rhino Times report regarding the city of Greensboro’s proposed budget. The bottom line is that there will be both higher property taxes and higher fees under this budget if approved.
George Hartzman estimates that the average magnitude of the property tax increase will be 21%. Fee increases will be nearly ten percent.
It should be noted that we have black males serving as both City Manager in Greensboro and County Manager for Guilford. Their proposed budgets both included large property tax increases.
Both of these men serve at the pleasure of socialist local politicians.
Greensboro has a tradition of big government with huge, unnecessary spending initiatives that generate higher annual operating expense. The city’s leaders have little regard for those who pay property taxes.
That is what you get when you elect socialists.
Living in the Peoples Republic of Greensboro is way too costly.
At some point along the curve of tax rates, the rate changes qualitatively from contributory to confiscatory ; the cutoff value between those categories depends on one’s political philosophy.
What you end up paying in combined federal/state/local taxes that must be added up. And the answer is not about picking 40%, 50% or 60%, it’s about realizing that whatever the % of income that is taxed, (1) the spending is absolutely unnecessary and does no one any good, and (2) whatever the percentage, it undercuts the incentive to invent, invest, produce, create jobs and engage in economic exchange. There’s no safe way to pay for a runaway welfare state.
Citizens will have a chance to let their voices be heard both on the City budget as well as before the Guilford County Commissioners.
Bring your pitch forks and torches and be loud. (-:
I agree wholeheartedly, Fred. Great post.
The city’s leaders are wasting money, pure and simple. They don’t see any upper limit to what they can extort from citizens.
Hey Guys, long time reader, first time posting. Having recently moved from the city to the county, I realized that I no longer have a vote in city politics.
Could it be that the majority of conservative voices in the past 30 years, have done like myself and left the city to the liberals, while still doing most of our business in the city??
If so, how do you propose we fix it?
Hi, Brian–
Great to hear from you! You raise a great point. Most sensible people have fled and found more hospitable environs in which to live.
How to fix it? I don’t know. I am not sure there IS a fix within the state’s bigger cities like Greensboro because the same phenomenon has occurred in all these places. Conservatives move out, and you are left with a majority-minority population that votes overwhelmingly for the socialists.
That is why I have argued the state should step in and constrain the cities; and in fact, that is what the Raleigh Republicans have done with the constitutional amendment they are placing on the ballot to limit property tax increases. But they could do more– and they probably need to do so. The bigger cities are no longer competent to manage their own affairs without firm guardrails set in place by the state.