Quote:
Originally Posted by sv rapacious
Long week, sorry.
Toot nails it.
All BOCC commissioner MUST pay homage to D1...and that is not equal representation.
The BoCC is completely one sided, That is not good in any Governance.
Here is something interesting...Chapel Hill ranks dead last. And CH Board Member Penny Rich want to bring CH leadership to the BOCC...that may not bode well for the county...
Wilmington tops in cost efficiency
svR |
Ah, yes. Chapel Hill ranks dead last. Except in schools and public transit (the two largest lines in its budget). And also in unemployment. But oddly the author doesn't consider these factors, he only looks at trash and water. And even then, he doesn't consider that Chapel Hill produces less trash per capita and uses less water per capita than any community in NC. He just looks at what the total bill is and declares BAD.
For some perspective, Chapel Hill has the good fortune of having the single largest employer in the state sitting smack dab in the middle of it. And it has the bad fortune of the fact that as a public university, UNC adds nothing to its property tax coffers. This automatically is going to mean that tax rates on private property are going to be higher for the same level of services than in a community that is not dominated by public or non-profit institutions (similar issues of Duke, to a lesser extent, in Durham).
Layer on top of this the fact that Chapel Hill has long had the strongest school system in the state. Historically, this was due to the fact that it had alot of university families who valued education and were willing to pay for it. Now it is because when someone moves to the area, the first thing they want to know is "where are the best schools", they see the CHCSS, and want to move there. This drives demand in the district, leading to bidding up of the property over the last 15 years, driving down the percentage of lower income students and driving up the percentage of high income students.
So what does this have to do with taxes? Over the last 15 years, the population of Chapel Hill has grown 30%. Meanwhile the number of students in CHCSS has doubled. Folks move in when their kids are age 4 and out when the last kid graduates. So the percentage of people demanding the most services (ie...parents) is going up, therefore the only way to keep up with the rising cost of these services (ie...building more schools and filling them with teachers) is to increase the biggest revenue source in the city...property taxes. You can slap a walmart at each corner of town and it is not going to change the fact that as long as the ratio of students/population goes up, tax rates will have to follow.
Rant off.
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