1. Voters in 11 counties will decide on November 2 if they trust their commissioners with more of their hard-earned money
Commissioners in eleven counties are asking voters for tax increases. The research division of the John Locke Foundation is busy completing analyses of all these requests. Below are linked the reports we have completed, by county; the remainder will be online shortly at JohnLocke.org.
Columbus County
"Get the Math Right: Columbus County leaders are wrong about proposed tax hike’s size, need"
Cherokee County
"A Taxing Legacy in Cherokee: County voters face vote on higher taxes proposed by rejected commissioners"
Alamance County
"A Question of Trust: Alamance County commissioners don’t trust voters; can voters trust them?"
Harnett County
"Strike Four?: Despite three strikes on tax hikes, Harnett County officials try again"
Person County
"Tax Hike in Person Would Be Bad for Small Business: Three of Five Commisioners Agree"
Bladen County
"An Unnecessary Tax Hike: Bladen commissioners go back on their ‘No Tax Increase’ promise"
Guilford County
"Third Time’s Not the Charm: Guilford County still needs better spending, not higher taxes"
Orange County
"Orange Crush: Tax hike would crush taxpayers and county economy"
2. Cary delays refunding illegal APFO fees
Cary collected Adequate Public Facility Ordinance (APFO) fees from builders and developers between 1999 and 2004. The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled against these fees, and now Cary is attempting to get out of refunding the money to the builders.
Read Donna Martinez’s blog post here and the Cary News article here. My report on APFO’s is here.
3. Feds are trying to implement Soviet-style five-year plan, but we should not complain, because it is for our own good
More on the EPA, DOT, and HUD’s united effort to use their federal regulatory powers to "coerce us out of our cars." Marcia Sielaff, writing in American Thinker, compares this coordinated effort by three powerful agencies to the centralized planning adopted in Soviet five-year plans. The Soviet five-year plans created 60 years of misery for the population and contributed to the final collapse of the Soviet empire. Let’s hope it does not take that long for these efforts to be declared a failure.
