Friday, September 21, 2007

No good news for local tax options

According to the Civitas Poll proponents of a county transfer tax or sales tax have an uphill battle to fight.

Would you support or oppose a referendum on the ballot in your County to increase the sales tax to help pay for local services?

Yes 32%
No 60%

Would you support or oppose a referendum on the ballot in your County to increase the transfer tax to help pay for local services?

Yes 24%
No 53%

But of course these are not state-wide ballot referenda, but only a few counties will be having such initiatives. This week the N&O reported that 16 counties will have transfer tax referenda this fall and 16 counties will have sales tax referenda. Five counties are having both, though a county may only impose one or the other. The local situation is going to have an impact on people's views towards these new taxes, but I think they will all start out behind. Nobody likes new taxes.

Note that if you explained that the money went to pay for schools, then the number of people saying "yes" would go up.

Update (9/24/07): Thanks new raleigh for pointing out the mistake. The second question should say "transfer tax" not "sales tax."

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