Press Release
♦ Raleigh, N.C. – Sen. Tom McInnis (R – Richmond) joined hundreds of local elected officials and community leaders from across North Carolina Wednesday in support of a proposal recently passed by the N.C. Senate to fairly allocate local sales taxes to counties and municipalities.
The crowd was comprised of about 200 mayors, county commissioners, town council members, school board members, community college presidents, registers of deeds, county managers, finance officers, county attorneys, chiefs of police, town administrators and other county and town officials.
“This bill represents the most important piece of legislation for rural North Carolina this session. The 50% per capita and 50% point of sale will level the playing field for the rural counties while keeping the urban counties strong. We look forward to the bill being passed in the House and signed into law by the Governor.” said Sen. McInnis.
The current system dates back to 2007, when past legislative leaders decided to redistribute wealth by sending 75 cents of every dollar of local sales tax to the mostly urban counties where the tax is collected, while allocating just 25 cents based on population. Since then, this unfair change has resulted in rural residents leaving their sales tax dollars behind when they leave their home counties to buy goods in urban areas.
The Senate proposal – passed with bipartisan support earlier this week – returns to the fairer system in place for a quarter of century prior to 2007. Under the fair system the bill returns to, 50 percent of sales tax revenues will be allocated based on where people live, with the remaining 50 percent allocated based on the county where a sale takes place. The plan also eliminates outdated and unfair “adjustment factors” that redistribute sales tax revenues to just a handful of counties.
The change will allow smaller, less prosperous counties and municipalities to benefit from the taxes their own citizens pay, helping them to strengthen their schools, attract new jobs, and drive their local economies.
The rally was just one of several public displays of support for the Senate proposal. Earlier this year, more than 100 local officials from across the state traveled to Raleigh to share the tremendous positive impact a fair allocation of sales taxes would have on their communities – including a county commissioner who said his county hasn’t built a new school in over three decades, a community college president who worried her students don’t have access to critical technology and educational resources, and a school superintendent who still relies on a 75-year-old bus garage, even though the school buses won’t fit all the way inside.
Local officials were encouraged to contact members of the House of Representatives and Gov. Pat McCrory to voice their support for a change in the sales tax.
