Alamance County commissioners are scheduled to vote Monday night on this year’s budget.
The key issues are spending priorities and the property tax rate.
The most important question, in our judgment, is whether the commissioners will live up to their campaign promises – or whether, as seems increasingly likely, they will jettison those pledges in favor of higher taxes.
Over the past 35 years, one of the most popular features in this newspaper has been our pre-election questionnaires for various local offices, in which we ask candidates their positions on various issues shortly before the election on which their names will be on the ballot.
Three of the commissioners were elected just last year, so they’re only about eight months from the November election and the positions they took on last year’s questionnaire.
Here’s what the three candidates who were elected said in response to two of the most important questions on the 2024 edition of the questionnaire:
“In general, do you believe Alamance County government’s property tax rate [then and now set at 46.86 cents per $100 valuation] is too high, too low, or about right?”
John Paisley, Jr.: “Too high.”
Ed Priola: “Too high.”
Pam Thompson: “About right.
A follow-up question asked them “at about what level do you think the county tax rate, now 46.86¢ per $100 valuation, should be
set?”
Paisley: 43 cents per $100.
Priola: 42.2 cents per $100.
Thompson: 46.86 cents per $100.
Not a whole lot has changed since November – not in the overall national economic climate nor the county’s; there have been no major catastrophes (nothing like a Covid pandemic, for instance) that would have changed the county’s outlook.
So, the underlying question is whether these candidates, now actually commissioners (Paisley and Thompson were already incumbents), will stick by what they told our readers and the broader Alamance County public eight months ago or not.
By the way, commissioner Steve Carter hasn’t been on the ballot since 2022. But his response to the same question two years earlier was that the tax rate at the time was “about right” and should be kept “as low as possible.”
He supported the pre-valuation tax rate of 65 cents per $100 valuation.
However, based on his track record since reelection, we’re not optimistic about Carter “holding the line” next week. He has voted for higher property tax rates for each of the past two years (now about 10 percent higher than the “revenue neutral” standard he said he supported in 2022) – and against a penny-cut in the rate the year before, in 2021.
Only in 2022, the year when he was on the ballot, did he support a penny-cut in the tax rate. (Which reminds us of why we think more frequent elections are always a good idea; candidates seem to be more responsive to the public during June budget season when they’re going to face the voters in November.)
To his credit, however, this week, it was Carter who asked questions during one budget workshop about using more of the fund balance that led to the revelation about extra money coming in to the fund balance (likely more than $10 million) that could make a property tax rate increase unnecessary.
Ah, and what to make of Kelly Allen, the former Haw River mayor who was elevated by the Republican Party to the board of commissioners after the November 2024 elections?
She has made lots of comments since her appointment vowing to keep the current tax rate. Probably her most definitive was about six weeks ago: “I’m against increasing [property] taxes. Period. We are elected as stewards of the taxpayer’s money. . . Everybody lives within a budget, and we need to be really good about staying within our budget.”
“Period.”
We remember that emphasis, even if Allen may have forgotten. This past week she asked county officials to prepare an option of a whopping 7-cent property tax increase.
If she supports such a monstrous increase, we see little reason for her even to bother filing for election later this year. She’ll stand little chance in a Republican primary, presuming anyone else runs for the two seats on next year’s ballot.
And during this week’s budget workshop, Allen seemed to align with the idea that a 2-cent increase is necessary: “I think at a minimum we’re going to have to go up to 2 cents, although I hate to increase the burden on taxpayers,” Allen said.
From zero to 2 or 7 cents in just a matter of weeks!
At any rate, the current debate is about whether to keep the tax rate at 46.86 cents, or to raise it; options seem to range from the 1.59-cent tax increase recommended by county manager Heidi York to a huge 7-cent increase option that commissioners Thompson and Allen have asked be considered.
Frankly, if the commissioners abandon their pledges to voters – made as recently as eight months ago – we may have to reconsider whether we should devote as much time, space, and effort to publishing these questionnaires and candidate responses before future elections.
We’ve been told repeatedly, and sales of our editions carrying the questionnaires reinforce, that many voters rely on these candidate responses in evaluating the candidates and deciding for whom to vote.
Alamance County voters have taken for granted that candidates are being truthful with their responses, not just saying what they hope will get them elected or reelected while camouflaging their real intentions or inclinations.
We guess we’ll find out tomorrow night whether each of the five current board members was being honest, or dishonest, in their previous declarations about their position on taxes and property tax rates.
See links to other editorials below special subscription offer.
NO ONE ELSE PROVIDES THE DEPTH OF LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE YOU GET IN THE ALAMANCE NEWS – in print each week and online every day. Subscribe now for unlimited online access to the latest, most comprehensive local news coverage.
Read other editorials from June 12 edition:
• Trust county government staff? Surely you jest: https://alamancenews.com/trust-the-county-government-staff-surely-you-jest/
• Another sales tax vote? How many times must voters say ‘no’?: https://alamancenews.com/how-many-times-must-the-voters-say-no/
• Local governments 6, residents 0: https://alamancenews.com/local-governments-6-residents-0/
• Bureaucratic ambush in Gibsonville: https://alamancenews.com/bureaucratic-ambush-in-gibsonville/
