If you live in a county where the land transfer tax is on the ballot, know that you’ve been paying for advocacy by the county commissioners in support of the tax. That is, taxpayers have been forced to bankroll government propaganda. What a brave new world we live in.
Somebody is fighting it, though. Consider this complaint by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which requests the Chatham County Board of Elections take action on:
The Commission approved the hiring of a campaign consultant, Kim Gazella, to run a pro-transfer tax campaign at taxpayers’ expense.
The Commission used taxpayer dollars to fund a countywide poll on the transfer tax issue.
The Commission used taxpayer dollars to produce and distribute a brochure that promotes the real estate transfer tax. The piece is not an education piece in that it only presents one side of the debate.
The Commission used taxpayer dollars to create various web pages on its web site that promote the real estate transfer tax.
Chatham County Manager Charlie Horne produced a piece promoting the transfer tax and asking that citizens “Vote ‘YES’” on the transfer tax.
This is clearly advocacy for the transfer tax and is a violation of state law. State law (G.S. 163-278.12) requires the above expenditures to be reported to the local board of elections. We are not aware of any such reporting by the Commission.
If you live in a county where the transfer tax is on the ballot, I encourage you to link to this post, or to one of the links I’ve provided.
-Max Borders
Leave a Comment