Mebane councilman makes pitch for sales tax referendum

There has yet to be a marketing strategy savvy enough to convince voters in Alamance County to buy into an increase in the local sales and use tax.

But this public sensibility, which has expressed itself in a series of four failed sales tax referendums, hasn’t deterred one member of Mebane’s city council from making a spiel of his own for this measure.

Councilman Sean Ewing appeared before Alamance County’s commissioners this week to request another referendum on this 1/4-cent hike, which state law allows the county to enact – provided that it first gets a nod from the local electorate.

Although far from the first to make this suggestion to the commissioners, Ewing did more than regurgitate earlier pleas when he spoke up during a designated public comment period at the start of a special-called meeting on Monday. Instead, the councilmember approached the commissioners with a carefully-wrought sales pitch, a photo-friendly visual aid, and a distinctly novel argument in favor of this shop-worn proposal.

Many proponents of this potential hike have harped on millions of dollars that the county could raise if the current levy on retail transactions increases from 6.75 to 7 percent (of which 4.75 percent is already claimed by the state). Some of the measure’s supporters have tried to minimize its impact on the average local consumer, while others have dwelled on the potential bounty from shoppers who live outside of Alamance County.

Yet, Ewing observed that, in some instances, people in Alamance County are already paying a surcharge of 7 cents on the dollar – at least when the total amount of a purchase forces the retailer to round up the existing 6.75 cent rate.

[Story continues below special subscription offer.]

As a case in point, Ewing unfurled a gargantuan copy of a receipt that he received when he made a one dollar purchase at an area pharmacy.

“I bought a copy of our award-winning local newspaper, The Alamance News, for one dollar,” the councilmember recalled, “and with our current sales tax of 6.75 percent, the total came to $1.07.

“Where did that [extra] .25 cent go?” he went on to inquire rhetorically.

“This fraction of a cent is rounded up and sent to the state…So, this [proposed tax hike] is about bringing our own tax dollars back home to work for us here in Alamance County.”

Ewing proceeded to touch on some of the other arguments that have been bandied about in support of a 1/4-cent hike in the sales tax. He mentioned, for instance, the contribution that out-of-county shoppers would make to this levy. He was especially keen to play up this angle in reference to Mebane’s forthcoming location of Buc-ee’s – a convenience store chain that’s known for its mammoth, emporium-like sites.

The anticipated haul from Buc-ee’s has also been trumpeted by county commissioners who share Ewing’s favorable outlook for the proposed sales tax increase. In fact, this retailer’s regional draw has been underscored by commissioner Kelly Allen and Steve Carter, the vice chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, as a selling point in support of a higher levy on sales.

Both Carter and Allen openly ruminated about this 1/4-cent hike as they and their fellow commissioners were struggling to tamp down the property tax burden in the county’s current annual budget. The pair ultimately joined commissioner Pam Thompson in approving a spending plan that lifts this particular levy from 46.9 to 49.4 cents for every $100 of property value.

Carter and Allen nevertheless called for another sales tax referendum in 2026 in the hope that the county’s voters will agree to raise the sales and use tax in order to offset further property tax increases. Carter even suggested that this countywide vote should occur during next year’s party primaries so the proceeds from the proposed sales tax increase can be factored into the next round of budgetary deliberations.

In his remarks to the commissioners, Ewing also endorsed a potential referendum in 2026 – which, according to the county’s administrators, is the earliest opportunity for the 1/4-cent sales tax hike to go before the local electorate.

He went on to suggest that the county’s voters may finally sign off on the measure if it’s floated during the course of the year.

“This is not about a burdensome new tax,” he added. “This is about a small almost unnoticeable contribution from the millions of people who shop in our county…Let’s give our citizens a choice to keep a quarter for our county.”

- Advertisement -