Archive for the ‘Transfer Tax’ Category
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 |
by Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
Determined to keep their perfect score in defeating counties’ efforts to adopt a real estate transfer tax, the North Carolina real estate and construction interests, led by the North Carolina Association of Realtors and the North Carolina Homebuilders, have pumped more than $205,000 in cash and in-kind contributions into defeating the initiative in Orange County.
The figures, filed on Monday — the deadline for campaign finance reports for the first quarter and the final weeks leading up to the election — show that the state organizations that have helped organize and fund county-based groups to fight the tax represent the bulk of funding for Citizens for a Better Orange County, which was set up in February to fight the tax.
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Monday, March 31st, 2008 |
Why is this option before the voters?
In 2007, the state Legislature passed a law to overhaul the way Medicaid is paid. Before, counties were responsible for paying part of Medicaid expenses. Under the new law, the state takes on the county’s share of Medicaid, and in exchange counties have to reduce their sales taxes from 2.5 percent to 2 percent in 2010.
The new law gives counties an option to recover lost tax revenue. They can either raise sales taxes another 0.25 percent or put in a tax on land transfers of 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent. Counties cannot pass either of these new taxes without voters’ approval. A special referendum has to be held and approved by the majority of voters in the county. If the referendum loses, the county cannot collect the tax.
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Friday, March 21st, 2008 |
Opinion
The Wrong Tax at the Wrong Time
By Mark Zimmerman
Orange County has always prided itself on being a progressive community that strives for fairness. When the Orange County Commissioners chose to add a referendum to the May 6 primary election ballot imposing a new sales tax on property, known as the transfer tax, it abandoned those principles.
The transfer tax is a regressive tax that will disproportionately impact lower-income homeowners, place an unnecessary burden on affordable housing and nonprofit organizations and unfairly concentrate our taxes on a minority of our fellow citizens. The way it works is that when you sell your home or some land, Orange County will take 0.4 percent of your selling price before giving you the rest of your proceeds.
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