There are some weird things that happen during elections, but, based on the lack of discussion regarding the quarter-cent sales tax increase referendum that will appear on the ballot for the November election it feels like the sales tax hike once again is doomed to fail.
Residents of Guilford County like school children – which is why they have voted to approve $2 billion in school bonds in recent years – but those same people don’t like taxes, and there doesn’t seem to be a super-aggressive push for the sales tax hikes, unlike some previous attempts when there was a lot of promotion for it.
Voting has already started and the Rhino Times has yet to see a billboard, TV commercial or social media ad asking for people to vote for the referendum that would likely bring in an extra $25 million a year to the county.
Some leaders of high-profile organizations told the Rhino Times that they had been surprised that no one had come to them this year, as they had in past years, to ask their groups to publicly endorse the sales tax hike.
The Guilford County Commissioners pledged when they agreed to put the sales tax option on the ballot that the proceeds would be used to increase the salaries of school system employees. Some county commissioners who are hoping to see the sales tax pass believe that making people aware of the purpose of the money raised will help voters decide to pass the tax increase that has passed in a lot of North Carolina counties but has never been shown any love in Guilford County.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said earlier in the year that people always say they love teachers and they are underpaid, and he said it’s time that county residents put their votes where their mouths are.
When asked about why there was now so little promotion of the sales tax increase ballot referendum, he said he could say why Guilford County government isn’t campaigning for the passage of the tax – even though most county commissioners and county staff would love to see it pass.
“By law, we can’t push for it,” Alston said. “We can inform people about it, but we can’t campaign for it.”
North Carolina law doesn’t allow taxpayer money to be used to advertise or promote ballot referendums, and, while the commissioners can say positive things about the quarter-cent sales tax all they like, they can’t use county resources or funds to try to get it passed.
The School Board is in the same boat: They would love to see the sales tax pass but they can’t use taxpayer money to promote it.
One reason the sales tax hike issue hasn’t gotten much attention is clearly because other election battles are stealing all the oxygen in the room. North Carolina is a central state in play now in the most important American presidential election of all time, and, if that weren’t enough, the explosion of the Mark Robinson scandal has drawn a whole lot of attention as well.
One place where the sales tax referendum is actually being given some attention is on the Guilford County government webpage – where a big banner across the top takes one to a page where some basic information is provided.
For instance, the webpage states Guilford County residents currently pay a combined state and local sales tax of 6.75 percent, which comes out to $6.75 per $100 purchase.
It notes, “Sales tax is collected by retailers on taxable goods and services at stores and restaurants in Guilford County. The current sales tax rate in Guilford County is 6.75 percent. Of this amount, 4.75 percent is kept by the State of North Carolina and the remaining 2 percent is distributed back to Guilford County, local governments, and fire districts.”
On the other hand, when it comes to the 0.25 percent sales tax increase, all of those proceeds are distributed solely back to Guilford County.
“For a consumer,” the county notes, “the increase would equate to 1 cent for every $4 spent.”
Guilford County’s website also includes the commissioners’ statement of intent: “By a Resolution it adopted on June 20, 2024, the Board of County Commissioners stated an intent to use proceeds from the 1/4 cent sales and use tax, if approved by the voters of Guilford County, for the purpose of increasing the County’s Local Supplement towards compensation for teachers and classified employees of Guilford County Schools. The Resolution, while non-binding, was adopted unanimously by the bi-partisan Board of County Commissioners.”
In total, 46 counties across North Carolina have implemented a one-quarter-cent sales tax hike.
Rockingham, Forsyth, Randolph and Davidson counties, for instance, have adopted the additional sales tax, while Stokes and Alamance counties haven’t.
The sales tax wouldn’t apply to everything sold. Here are some exceptions:
- Prescriptions
- Motor Vehicles
- Some Medical Equipment
- Gasoline
- Non-Prepared Food or Groceries
With no great enthusiastic advertising campaign to push the sales tax, it seems highly unlikely that this will be the year it finally does pass when it has failed every time in the past.
An aggressive campaign might really have made a difference.
Just like taxes, jail inmates and new jails aren’t popular with voters either; however, just over a decade and a half ago, former Sheriff BJ Barnes ran a highly aggressive campaign and used every method at his disposal to will that bond referendum across the finish line. He managed to get it passed by the skin of his teeth.
For instance, the image above was plastered all over billboards, television ads and mailers – largely to scare people into voting for the jail bond that brought us a giant new jail in downtown Greensboro.
But there’s nothing really scary about teachers not getting paid a larger raise than they usually get.
For those keeping score over the year, in 2007, the NC General Assembly voted to allow counties to increase their sales tax by a quarter of a cent – if county voters approved the measure. So, the very first time Guilford County government could do so, it put the tax hike on the 2008 Primary ballot, where it failed.
Since it failed then, the commissioners put it back on the ballot six months later on the November ballot that year, only for it to fail again.
Guilford County then put the measure on the ballot in the General Elections in 2010 and in 2014 and once again in 2020.
The board later put it on the 2022 Primary Election ballot – where fewer voters turn out than they do in General Elections.
Once again it didn’t pass.
In the 2008 General Election, the sales tax referendum failed in a major way, with 65,329 voting for it and 148,798 voting against it. In other words, it lost 30 percent to 70 percent.
Fourteen years ago, advocates nearly managed to get it passed: It came close to passing in the 2010 General Election, when 66198 people voted for it, while 70,022 voted no. That vote ended up with 49 percent voting yes and 51 percent voting against.
The sales tax hike referendum didn’t fare nearly as well four years later, in the 2014 General Election when 68,735 voted for it and 91,962 voted against it.
That year, it lost 43 percent to 57 percent.
In the 2020 General Election, 89,440 people voted for it, while a whopping 181,033 voted against it. That amounted to 33 percent yes votes to 67 percent no votes.
In the 2022 Primary Election, 33,720 people voted for it, while 41,457 voted against. That was a 45 percent to 55 percent loss.
If the sales tax referendum is voted down this year, don’t worry if you are a big advocate for it, because it will certainly rear its head once again soon in another upcoming election.
I knew I was voting NO before they even asked.
GCS and the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) contradict their own actions! How quickly everyone forgets how GCS and the BOCC pushed hard (including bussing students to the polls) for the $3B in school bonds and the Sales & Use Tax referenda in previous years. Why the sudden change of heart?
The current proposed sale & use tax referenda is a ploy to raise funds to pay off school bond debt service. If you recall, back in May (2024), the BOCC was considering a means to secure a funding source for the $3B in school bond debt. And while GCS and the BOCC is pushing the sales & use tax referenda as supporting teacher and staff, if you go to the Guilford County website, it specifically states “The Resolution, while non-binding, was adopted unanimously by the bi-partisan Board of County Commissioners.” That’s right NON-BINDING, meaning once referenda is approved, the BOCC can do whatever they want with the funds raised as the referenda language does not specify how the monies will be used.
So, wake up, Guilford County Voters–all is not what it seems.
——
ALL monies confiscated by government are fungible, and result in a slush fund for The Parasitic Sector.
In 1935, FDR established Social Security and actually ring fenced a genuine “Social Security Trust Fund”.
How long do you think it lasted before it was plundered and the money just became part of the Government’s massive slush fund? Three years. They instituted a sleight of hand that let them get the money.
And that, dear reader, should tell you a lot about the rapacious greed of The Parasites (aka “The Public Sector”… which is strange because I don’t own a single brick of a single government building).
Right, they spend it all, and…..more from the future (inflation).
And I never knew you were a reader of The Rhino, “P.S.”
Vote NO. Who in their right mind trust Guilford County Commissioners? More taxes more waste. Teachers are a smoke screen as these Commissioners will say anything to get money for their progressive pet projects.
Skip Alston and the other commissioners first stated that the additional tax would be used to repay the borrowed bond money. Well, a tax increase to repay borrowed money did not work to pass the sales tax hike. So, Alston, by his own admission revised his gimmick by tying the tax increase to teachers’ pay. Anyone with a smidgen of common sense knows this is a bait and switch scheme. Don’t fall for this. The money will be used to repay the ill-advised bonds. The sales tax increase is an additional tax that will never go away. Taxes never die. If 46 counties have implemented a one-quarter-cent sales tax hike, that means that over one-half of NC counties have not. If this is an argument to entice voters to vote for the tax increase, I remind voters of what mothers’ response is to their child’s effort to convince her to allow bad behavior because everybody else is doing it; “if someone jumped off a cliff and was hurt, would you jump because others jumped?” Vote NO on another tax increase. Remember your property tax bill. You either have or will pay your exorbitant, unreasonable property tax bill, or your house payment increased because your escrow increased due to the higher tax. Vote NO!
Our govt cannot manage all the money extorted from us now. Why should we give them more?
Every dollar our govt takes reduces our freedom by that much.
Excellent informative article !
When I came to NC the Sales Tax was 4% statewide. The greed of the public sector has driven it to nearly twice that.
And they just keep on putting it on the ballot until they get the result they want.
Let’s ask this : why do we never get asked if we’d like a REDUCTION in the Sales Tax?
Like flipping a coin, sooner or later they’ll get the result they want. And then they’ll bleat that “the issue has been democratically resolved”. Yeah… just as soon as they get the result they want. Why wasn’t the issue “resolved” after they got half-a-dozen rejections?
The greed of the Parasitic Sector has no limit.
Margaret Thatcher called it The Ratchet Effect, and she was right.
add . . . the greed of the non-profit sector : check- out their salaries n perks & lack of accomplishment. mendicants !
You’re right, Marklesparkl.
The so called Non-Profit schemes should more accurately be called Non-Taxpaying.
Because that whole thing is just a tax avoidance scheme.
A scheme sanctioned by government. The same government asking you for more tax money. Vote No, No, No!
What was the income tax rate when you came here? What is it now?
I’m not sure about the Federal Income Tax rates, except I know that Self-Employment Tax was jacked up massively in the 1980’s. That’s the tax that should be called Medicare and Social Security Tax, because that’s what it pays for.
I know that the NC state Income Tax has fallen over the last few years – ever since the Republican Party took control. THANK YOU, REPUBLICANS !
It ain’t easy trying to run a small business and raising a family, but you helped me.
This 0.25 tax proposal is flawed in that the commissioners used the word, “intent”, in their resolution. In other words, there is no guarantee that the tax increase would go to the schools. They could at anytime divert this 0.25 sales tax increase for other pet projects which do not benefit the schools. Therefore, their resolution should not be approved by the voters until they make a statement that guarantees the 0.25 sales tax increase will be only for school staff supplements.
Par for the course for Greensboro. In a recession (despite “economists & the Biden Administration saying otherwise), unemployment rising, the GDP slipping, inflation higher than the government wants people to believe, so what is more logical that raising the sales tax for people with less money? It is like Spectrum raising their rates monthly…oh yeah, they do that anyway while offering a Senior discount only in 5 New England states, but that is a complaint for another time. It will be a great day when Nancy Vaughn and the city council is replaced!
Mr Truitt. Please take a government civics class, Nancy Vaughn and the city council have no part in this sales tax
BILLIONS in bond money and yet the County Commissioners, City Council, and Guilford County School Board can’t find twenty five million for teachers? Instead they ask more blood from us?
Twenty five million is a pittance compared to the interest WE are paying. And don’t forget the largest property tax increase in history.
Now tell me who doesn’t care about our teachers!,
NO TO YOUR SALES TAX REFERENDUM
Providing educational services is a fundamental responsibility of government. As is law enforcement. These services should come off the top of the budget, not be used to bully us into additional taxes or come up as afterthoughts. I’m as liberal as you can get, but I can not agree with blaming an already overtaxed population for underpaid NECESSARY public servants when bureaucrats are getting hefty raises and a host of other non-essential line items scoot through the first budget process without question.
Hey! I did that graphic years ago. Cool.
“Skip Alston said earlier in the year that people always say they love teachers and they are underpaid, and he said it’s time that county residents put their votes where their mouths are.” I think one big barrier to voting for the additional sales tax is: When property revaluations came through and values jumped around 25%, Skip did NOT lower the tax rate and the county got a windfall. He is sitting on an extra $100 million a year or so and has apparently already spent that money. Now, here’s where others will criticize me: if the county would actually use the extra sales tax for teacher salaries, I could vote for it (and I am conservative). Unlike our property taxes, nobody would notice the increase. You spend $100.00, the extra tax is $.25. Twenty-five cents. A quarter. Liberals voted against it because they believe sales tax is a regressive tax. Nonsense. And, why shouldn’t poor people still pay in a little something to support our schools?
Vote Not only NO but Hell NO. City and county manipulated the largest increase in taxes with the reassessments. Then dropped services like leaf collection. And delayed the sheriff’s new building for nonsense relating to minority owned business when participation already exceeded expectations. Wasted over $3M with the delay.
They cannot manage what they have now. Vote NO to any new taxes.
There’s a simple way to get this tax increase to pass… Offset it by reducing property taxes by $25 million. That would actually be good for taxpayers, but that’s obviously not who GC commissioners care about.
Vote NO! We need to help Sen. Phil Berger dismantle the public school system and funnel public school money into private Christian schools that don’t have mandatory education requirements. Those who can’t afford to go to school can get low wage jobs making the goods we now buy from China after lifetime President Trump raises tariffs to where ‘Merican companies can compete on price
Private Christian Schools outperform crap Government Schools by a country mile.
What part of the Government Schools system do you work in, “Whodunnit”?
IF they can’t push for it then WHY does EVERY communication from Guilford County Schools includes information urging parents to vote for it. They are even having information sessions at the schools to promote this.. So what Skip can’t but the school system can?