Ole' Skip Blames the Voters, Says Both Property Tax and Sales Tax Increase Might be Necessary

N&R:

“We’re facing about a $40 million debt service next year plus the $9 million in operational expenses for the new county jail,” Alston said. “Our employees also haven’t had a cost-of-living increase in their salaries for the last two years. So in the next year we’re going to have to look at everything. A sales tax increase may be something we have to try"...

Yow said he would also like the commissioners to agree that if they raise the sales tax, they’ll avoid raising property taxes — and to tell residents how long the sales tax move will keep higher property taxes at bay.

Alston said he’s not sure that would be possible.

“If we did a quarter-cent sales tax increase it would generate us about $15 million,” he said. “That wouldn’t be enough to stave off a property tax increase, but that is the last resort. I’d want it to be a small increase, if it happened — two or three cents.”

Alston said he understands no one wants a tax increase, property or sales. But when voters approved more than $500 million in bonds in 2008, they made some sort of tax increase inevitable, he said.

It appears Skip is reverting back to form, and resuming his tax-increasing ways.  He is getting us ready for it.

Of course, he tells only part of the story. 

He does not point out that it was his fellow commissioners who voted to put all those bonds on the ballot.

He does not tell us that the Action Greensboro/ Greensboro Partnership folks were funding the bond campaign, and were aggressively pushing for the bonds.

He does not tell us that they gave the Simkins PAC an illegal $5,000 donation to get the bonds passed.  He does not mention that the PAC accepted the donation, and endorsed the bonds.  The PAC sent out a mailing to its entire list of voters telling them to vote in favor.  He also fails to point out, by the way, that he has been a principal in the PAC.

In addition, Skip refrains from advising us that the county can put a stop to the bond projects.  It can simply stop the projects from proceeding, and refrain from funding them.  The fact that the voters approved the bonds does not mean the projects have to proceed.  He also does not tell us that other economies might be possible in the county budget.

So when ole' Skip tells us he is going to raise sales taxes and property taxes, and it is the voters' fault, he is not telling the whole story.

Comments

[triadwatch]

great point and it needs to be addressed maybe in a letter to the editor

[Ken Hill]

It is the fault of those who voted for Skip. So his statement/implication is correct.

[Beau D. Jackson]

He does not tell us that they gave the Simkins PAC an illegal $5,000 donation to get the bonds passed. He does not mention that the PAC accepted the donation, and endorsed the bonds. The PAC sent out a mailing to its entire list of voters telling them to vote in favor. He also fails to point out, by the way, that he has been a principal in the PAC.

Who controls the checkbook here, who signs the check, hopefully it's a co-sign checkbook account. Doesn't the counsel have to approve such expendatures? Do the people of High Point know thier taxes have been spent on a political activist group! Beau

[Joe Guarino]

Beau, it was Action Greensboro that gave the PAC the $5,000, not the taxpayers. Of course, the taxpayers fund Action Greensboro and the Greensboro Partnership to some extent; so your point holds true indirectly.

[Brenda Bowers]

Dear Joe and Friends, I come by every day to see if anything has changed in Greensboro. I keep hoping to see that Robbie Sleazy Perkins has moved to a tropical atoll somewhere in the Pacific, and that Skip Wheel and Deal Alston has found Jesus. (sigh) It hasn't happened yet, but I will keep hoping.

Meantime I will continue to read your posts Joe because they are the best for information in Greensboro, and to read my Friends comments which are always astute and informative. BB

[Joe Guarino]

Brenda, things don't change in Greensboro. There may be a momentary respite, but the overall direction remains unchanged.

[Spag]

Linda Shaw blamed the voters, so why not Skip too?

[George Hartzman]

Thursday, July 29, 2010Why would Skip Alston say "$40 million debt service next year" when the estimate is $98,252,299?

“We’re facing about a $40 million debt service next year
plus the $9 million in operational expenses for the new county jail,” [Skip] Alston said.

Joe Killian
Greensboro News and Record, July 29, 2010

http://www.co.guilford.nc.us/11budgetpro/30%20-%20Debt.pdf
Page 3 of 8

Hat Tip Guarino

I just about wrote the whole thing in the comment post, and then thought, this is a good post to post.

So I posted it, and then thought, I should post it, so I did.

I was going to cut and paste your analysis, dead on, but didn't, but it seems dead on.

The game is rigged.

[Joe Guarino]

Thanks, George.

And yes, the game is indeed rigged... by the two power groups working in concert.

Sam, yes, when Shaw and Alston and others blame the voters, they try to distract attention from their own culpability.

[beelzebubba]

yutzi schlepers (whispered with contempt in Bronxian yiddish)..it's all your fault