3/4 Oppose Spending $100,000 to Promote Transfer Tax
Raleigh, N.C. – With the controversial land transfer tax on the Orange County ballot less than three weeks from today, North Carolina voters overwhelmingly oppose the idea that county commissioners spend money to promote the referendum that will increase taxes.
The Civitas Institute’s April DecisionMaker reveals that over three-fourths (77%) of North Carolina voters oppose county commissioners spending $100,000 of taxpayer dollars to promote the referendum increasing the land transfer tax. Only 7 percent supported it. 16 percent were undecided. (Question and results at bottom)
“The decision by the Orange County Commissioners to spend taxpayer money in what is realistically an advocacy campaign to convince voters to raise taxes on themselves is very unpopular with voters,” stated Civitas Institute Executive Director Francis DeLuca. “Voters overwhelmingly reject the idea that their tax dollars should pay for promoting referendums to increase taxes,” DeLuca added.
In addition to Orange County, 22 other counties will place measures to increase taxes on the ballot this May. Three additional counties will place referendums on the November ballot, with more counties under consideration as well.
“This should be a warning to other County Commissioners considering similar expenditures. Voters do not want their tax dollars used to promote tax referendums,” DeLuca concluded.
As a provision in the 2007-2008 state budget relieving counties of their share of Medicaid costs, counties have the option of increasing their sales tax by one-quarter percent or increasing the land transfer tax by four-tenths of one percent.
The study of 800 registered voters was conducted April 9-10 by TelOpinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2002, 2004 or 2006 general election or were newly registered voters since 2006. The voters were interviewed using live callers.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95% of the time, results from 800 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-3.7% of the “True Values.” “True Values” refer to the results obtained if were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2002, 2004 or 2006 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2006.
QUESTION: A NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY IS SPENDING $100,000 OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO PROMOTE A REFERENDUM INCREASING THE LAND TRANSFER TAX. DO YOU SUPPORT OR OPPOSE THIS TYPE OF EXPENDITURE?
# %
1. SUPPORT 56 7
2. OPPOSE 613 77
–. NOT SURE 131 16
TOTAL 800
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