Just a reminder to taxpayers: time is running short on being able to register your protest to stop planned hikes in local property taxes.
County commissioners, Mebane’s city council, and Gibsonville’s board of aldermen will meet on Monday night, with all entertaining budgets with 6.7 percent, 11 percent, and 18 percent property tax rate increases above their respective “revenue neutral” levels.
Other jurisdictions also have high proposed spending and taxing levels: Elon, 14 percent above “revenue neutral”; Graham 20 percent; and Burlington, more than 21 percent.
Their town and city councils meet within the next two weeks.
And, of course, the municipal increases are in addition to the possible countywide tax hike to be determined by county commissioners. So property owners in the towns and cities are faced with a compounded possibility of tax hikes ranging from 18 percent (in Mebane) to almost 28 percent in Burlington.
We encourage property owners to register their views now – rather than waiting until Election Day (later this year for municipalities, next year for county commissioners).
We fully expect that if elected officials don’t heed taxpayers’ concerns, they’ll see a revolt at the ballot box. And probably some new elected officials.
Which could be a good thing anyway.
