In the legislator's minds, the North Carolina Legislature exists for one reason -- to spend money. To do that, of course, they have to TAKE money from someone who earned it. The government does NOT generate ANYTHING -- they are only capable of taking.
In recent years, doubling the state expenditures is not enough -- they want MORE to spend. After raising taxes literally over $20 million, they STILL don't have enough. So the state is now playing games with money to spend even more.
One way they are doing this was a big thing in Washington, DC before the Republicans took over in the 90s -- unfunded mandates. For those who don't remember those, it was when the Congress demanded that states spend money on certain programs, but then wouldn't provide funding for it -- in effect, forcing the states to spend money.
Now they're only bribing states, but that's an issue for another day.
That was stopped years ago by Congress. It would have been better stopped by repealing the 17th Amendment (which stopped states from electing US Senators which was a GOOD thing), but that's an issue for another day.
But now the state of North Carolina is doing it to it's counties. The state tells the county how much it WILL spend on Medicaid (medical care for the alleged "poor" which is actually better care than most people get who PAY and WORK for it), but do not provide the counties with the money to pay for it.
There's an easy solution, but one that won't be taken. Counties should just send the bill to the state or simply ignore them. What will the state do, arrest the county leaders? And then what? The state will have to pay anyway! Counties of North Carolina, take control -- tell the state to pay or get lost.
But, alas, no -- what will happen instead is that the counties will raise money to pay for it the only way they can -- through raising property taxes. Then the state will say that they didn't raise taxes and the county legislators will say that THEY didn't raise taxes either. And the working person? Well sorry, you're just screwed.
Sigh, this is something that really bothers me. The Feds run the States and the States run the Counties, all of it is unconstitutional. We are supposed to be a republic.
Republic? The last republic I remember was Rome, until Gaius Julius Caesar desasembled it because of guess what, corruption.
That's right, Mindflame, it's completely backwards these days.
An Arbitratorofall, he did says we are SUPPOSED to be a Republic...
Mr. Ogre, sir --
You are scaring the bejeezus out of me.
As you know, I just closed on my house here in Charlotte on the 5th. Knowing that property taxes here are based on the fiscal year and I'm therefore looking at a prorated 6 months' taxes come June, you've got me worried that I may still have to take out financing on the damn tax.
What kind of rate can I look forward(or not) to?
One of the reasons I moved OUT of Charlotte -- you will have TWO rates!
The City of Charlotte will tax you AND the County of Mecklenburg will ALSO tax you! It is highly likely that both will raise taxes this year as well.
Oh, and the city likes to raise your taxes by revaluating your property every couple years, too.
Also -- you car is property, too, so you'll have to pay property taxes on that too, if you get one.
The current city rate is .42 per $100 and the county rate is .8368 per $100. (I moved to Iredell County where my tax rate is .435). Oh, and if you're in one of the city's "business districts," there's an additional tax of .0174 to .0668 depending on the district.
And the city will charge you taxes that are not voluntary for water into your house AND water out of your house (sewer -- including RUNOFF, not just through the pipes); and sanitation fees (sorry, no choices in garbage pickup, you have to use the city); and on and on and on...