New County Tax Bills in YOUR Mailbox!!! I told YOU so!!! Report by Robert A. Williams

If you checked your mailbox since Friday you should find YOUR new Cleveland County Property Tax Bills. Be sure to sit down and think calming thoughts before you open those envelopes and read the contents.

This is what I found in MY early Christmas present from the Cleveland County Commissioners, not Santa Claus, and sent out by the County Tax Collector. A tax bill that increased 18% from last year. An application to pay in five monthly payments instead of all at once. And a Convenience Site “Pass” to affix to my windshield for use when I haul my household trash to the trash dump-now called a Convenience Site.

Folks, remember your car tax bills will be collected by the NC Department of Motor Vehicles when your tags and registrations are renewed. Those car tax bills will also increase significantly also. Those slick Commissions and the County Manager aren’t through with you yet.

I reckon I should consider myself lucky. My tax bill only went up around 18%. From what I hear many tax bills will increase over 30% from last year. MY car tax will also go up, but not much. I purposely drive old vehicles just to P.O. the tax collector. Besides, I have found that doing routine maintenance on my vehicles prolongs their service life tremendously.

In your County tax bill package, on the back side of your tax bill, you will also find a listing of all he tax sources YOUR tax bill tax rate. County tax rate, City Tax Rate, Fire Tax rate, County water tax rate. School Tax rate, etc. For your location, add all those up and you get the total tax rate. For me, here in Fallston, that total tax rate is .8250. That equates to 82.5 cents per $100 valuation of my property.

Where the Commissioners really screw us is the County Commissioners sponsored this unnecessary and early re-evaluation of property where most properties value went up. Many properties value went up significantly. Then the Commissioners dropped their tax rate from 57 cents per $100 valuation to 54.75 Cents per $100. So, when you complain about your tax bills going up so high the Commissioners will claim that they lowered county taxes. Totally a deception. The additional property values went up enough so that even though the Commissioners dropped their tax rate 2.25 cents per $100 valuation, they will still rake in plenty more money that they will end up mostly wasting. Also, the County water, city tax, Fire tax stayed the same. So, they will all rake in more bucks.

The Commissioners also lowered the School Tax rate from 15 cents to 14 cents per $100 valuation. The Commissioners have been totally silent about that. But we all have to consider that that decrease in the school tax rate has something to do with School Board Chairman Robert “Luke” Queen and all his scandals-including wasteful spending. Also, the Commissioners are going to withhold 1 cents worth per $100 valuation of the school tax revenue from school funding and hold in reserve for new school buildings. Watching Luke Queen in action, this is a good approach the Commissioners have taken in this regard. Luke would have spent that extra money on something besides school construction. However, I predict there is one more scandal at CCS that will be coming out soon about why the commissioners are withholding school tax money from the school board under School Board Chairman Robert “Luke” Queen. On top of the scandal behind the Commissioners dropping Luke off the Cleveland Community College Board of Trustees and all the ongoing scandals about that. Right now, nobody is talking about that except me reporting about it as an eye witness.
Folks, I am going to stop this article right here. I told you the Commissioners were going to raise YOUR tax bills. And NOBODY but me showed up at Commissioner’s meetings to protest. So, I reckon All Y’all are getting a bit of what YOU deserve.

But, folks, stay tuned and pay close attention. I have received new information from various reliable sources about Cleveland County Schools that will blow your socks off. That article will be coming out very soon.