JLF expert helps end illegal use of tax dollars to promote sales-tax referendums

Voters in several North Carolina counties will decide next week whether their county governments can add 0.25 cents to the local sales-tax rate. As campaigns for those sales-tax referendums moved forward, Daren Bakst, John Locke Foundation Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies, raised concerns about promotional activity linked to local school systems in Durham, Orange, and Montgomery counties, along with the city of Durham and Orange County government. Bakst contends these various units of government illegally used taxpayer dollars to support the referendums through Web pages, videos, and fliers. Bakst sent letters to each offending government. Those letters prompted the city of Durham and the Orange and Montgomery school systems to remove the offending material from their websites. The News & Observer and Daily Tar Heel interviewed Bakst about his letters. In other research news, the Mountain XPress cited an interview with Bakst about the impact of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Chapel Hill’s taxpayer-funded election campaign program. Bakst also signed on to a letter (PDF) supporting federal regulatory reform. He will discuss legal issues surrounding health care during an appearance this afternoon with Bill LuMaye on WPTF Radio. The News & Observer published a letter from Michael Sanera, Director of Research and Local Government Studies, questioning Durham’s proposed sales-tax increase for transit programs. The Asheville Citizen-Times quoted Sanera in an article about Buncombe County’s proposed sales-tax increase for projects linked to the local community college. The Greensboro News & Record quoted Sanera in an editorial about water prices. Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies, served as a panelist for two public presentations this week in Chapel Hill. A University of North Carolina Law School group discussed constitutional issues surrounding public education, and the university’s Students for Education Reform chapter discussed Wake County schools’ student assignment plan. The News & Observer‘s “WakeEd” blog promoted the second panel discussion.