Now that the dust has settled on budgets for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, we can take a step back and see how our county compares to its neighbors in the piedmont or its counterparts across the state. The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners compiled the new property tax rates (along with any changes) and put them online here. It looks like the county, by keeping taxes at the revenue neutral rate, pretty much followed the state trend.
I haven’t been able to find a comprehensive listing of municipal tax rates for 08-09. One interesting document, however, is a survey (the results of which are attached below) of municipal officials across the state asking what their towns/cities did to balance budgets for the 2007-2008 year. The top four methods: raise fees, reduce capital spending, dip into savings and reduce general fund spending. Raising taxes was further down the list.
Sound familiar? To deal with budget crunches the past two years, Mount Airy has massively increased utility fees, reduced capital spending this year, dipped into savings last year and reduced general fund spending a bit this year. They didn’t raise taxes, actually lowering them this year a cent below the revenue neutral rate. Once again, we’re lockstep with state trends.
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