Folks, I would bet that many people will open their tax bills at the end of next month (July) and be flabbergasted at the amounts that tax bill went up. I can hear the squalling and bawling right now. Why didn’t somebody tell me about this?? Why doesn’t that mean old Robert A. Williams not put his newspaper in my driveway anymore???
All I can say is I told you so. I told you so many times. I don’t put out my newspaper in driveways anymore. I put it out on the internet now. For years now. YOU are responsible for seeking out what is going on with your government. My internet blog makes it easier for you to know the political news. But YOU have to punch it up on your computer or smart phone, pull it up and most importantly-READ what I have to say. Hmmm, if YOU don’t do that or read it and listen to those who say it is fake news-then, you are about to get what YOU deserve. Higher tax bills mailed out by Commissioners who think YOU are stupid and YOU will forget about the higher taxes by next year’s elections. That is how the Commissioners do things. And, unfortunately YOU taxpayers and voters do what you do too. Which is almost nothing to inform yourselves. Such as attending Commissioner’s Meetings.
This is what will happen at the June 1, 2021 Commissioner’s Meeting:
There will be an item on this June 1, 2021 Commissioner’s Meeting Agenda dealing with the 2021-2022 County Budget. There will be a presentation by the County Manager regarding the details of the Budget. Revenue and Spending. You will be told that the County tax rate has been dropped 2.25 cents per hundred dollar assessed value. From 57 cents to 54.75 cents. They will tell you that the School Tax rate has been reduced from 15 cents per hundred dollar assessed value to 14 cents. You will be told that this is a reduction in tax rates that will make your tax bills “revenue neutral.”
In common language “revenue neutral” means that when property evaluations go up, the tax rates will go down so you taxpayers, on average, will not be paying any higher tax bills than you were paying before the re-evaluation.
All this is lies and deceptions. Smoke and mirrors. First of all, the County Manager will not tell you that “revenue neutral” means what the common language words “revenue neutral” means. If he says anything, he might say that “Revenue Neutral” rules and calculations are provided by the North Carolina Local Government Commission, but he will NOT tell you that those calculations will ensure your tax bills, everybody’s tax bills will go up, Which is exactly what they will do. YOU and ME will pay much more in property taxes. Period!!!
The County Manager and Commissions too, for that matter, will not say and cannot say why they spent all that time and money to re-evaluate property-when it was not otherwise required-just to end up with taxpayer’s tax bills being exactly the same as before. If that were the case, they would be better off not to have done a re-evaluation of property to begin with. The Commissioners want more money and raising taxes is the only way they have to get more money. No matter how much they lie and cheat.
They will also not tell you that the other taxes, such as city, town and fire tax rates have remained the same and the higher re-evaluation of property will surely cause your tax bills to go up for those taxes too.
Besides those lies and deceptions, you will be told that the County Government goal is “to do more with less.” When they actually will only “do less with MORE!!”
They might tell you that county employees will be getting big raises. They won’t tell you that the County Manager will be getting an EXTRA big raise. They won’t tell you that the American Legion World Series, Baseball, Inc., under former Commissioner Eddie Holbrook is getting more than $300,000 this year, on top of $150,000 to resurface the field at Shelby High School. The field where the SHS girl’s softball team is not allowed to play on.
One thing that it is certain they will lie about is why the Commissioners dropped the School Tax rate from 15 cents to 14 cents per hundred-dollar valuation. Some are speculating that this decrease (Millions of dollars) is because the Commissioners are not pleased by all the wasteful spending at CCS and the great turmoil and controversies caused by School Board Chairman Robert “Luke” (short for Lucifer) Queen and want to show their displeasure. Kind of like the Mecklenburg County Commissioners dropped school funding to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools by $50 Million.
I do not hold with that theory. I believe the School tax rate was dropped because the Commissioners did NOT want to drop the County tax rate more than the 2.25 cents and they and the School Board under Luke Queen know well enough that with the reality of the large property tax value increases, they (the School Board) are going to get plenty of money to waste anyway.
Then, there will be a Public Hearing where members of the public will have the opportunity to speak five minutes “For” or “Against” the 2021-2022 Budget.
I would suggest that taxpayers show up in droves and overwhelmingly take five-minute turns telling Commissioners NOT to take more money out of their pockets and to vote NO on that budget. If history is true to form, no member of the public will attend and speak up against the major tax bill increases coming out at the end of July.
As I have already spoken out at previous Public Hearings-all by myself, I am going to just sit there at the June 1st Commissioner’s meeting and watch to see what happens.
And this will be what I am watching for. For one thing, I want to see just how many other people will show up and speak. My suggestion is “droves.” My prediction is ZERO to two people at the most.
The second thing I will be watching closely for, is which Commissioners will vote FOR the tax increase and which Commissioners will vote AGAINST the tax increase. Since the tax bills won’t be coming out until the end of July, nobody by June 1st will have a clue just how big this their tax bill is going to be. But, when they receive their tax bills, they are going to be pissed-off, big-time pissed off!
The next Commissioner Elections are in November, 2022, and by that time two years of big tax bill increases will have been in the mail. And, the only two Commissioners up for re-election in 2022 are Doug Bridges and Deb Hardin. So, Commissioners Bridges and Hardin will take the brunt of the taxpayer’s anger in the 2022 elections and Bridges and Hardin may get defeated. Which some are saying is what the other three commissioners, Hutching, Whetstine and Gordon (especially Hutchins and Whetstine) want to happen in the first place.
Folks, the bottom line here is the County is broke financially because of their endless wasteful spending habits. The County Commissioner Board is 100% Republican and Republicans are supposed to be against tax and spend governments. Therefore, any Commissioner that votes for this tax increase is a RINO Republican and needs to be defeated in next year’s Republican 2022 Primary Election. For me, it is as simple as that.
I personally like all the present Commissioners, but that will have no bearing on whether or not I will recommend them for the office of Commissioner in the 2022 and 2024 Elections. I have already calculated just how many hundreds of dollars extra by late July 2021 that my tax bill is going to be. I might like them, but I don’t like them that much to support them when they didn’t support me. And didn’t support all the rest of us taxpayers during all these hard times.
Just something for ALL you commissioners to think about. I predict the 2022 and 2024 Elections will have record turnouts and YOU will be wanting to be on the top side of the wave. And YOU already know that I have a long memory and a short temper regarding taxers and wasteful spenders. And many other taxpayers are likely to be thinking exactly what I am thinking after they get their tax bills.
Editor’s Note: I calculated MY property tax value increase and multiplied it against the new property tax rates. My tax bill in late July will increase by 19%. Then, I calculated how much a property tax RATE decrease would be necessary to get a “revenue neutral” tax bill. I calculated that the tax RATE would have to decrease by 14.4 cents per Hundred-dollar valuation for my tax bill to stay the same. The Commissioners’ only dropped the tax rate by 3.25 cents. Four and a half TIMES Less than necessary for a “revenue neutral” tax bill. Folks, YOU and ME and all the rest of us taxpayers are being screwed and lied to. If you don’t believe me, stay home next Tuesday night and wait for your late July tax bill. Then, don’t come complaining to ME. I have told you so and YOU didn’t listen.