Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ The following is a brief interview with County Commission Chairman Jim Sides about the possibility of a “West End Plaza” tax being harped upon by it’s Downtown Salisbury ONLY enemies in an attempt to discredit the Rowan County Commissioners well known for keeping the county taxes down. Chairman Sides in his entire career on the Rowan County Commissioners has never voted for a tax increase. He hopes to keep that claim to frugality alive until he dies in office.
Steve Mensing: “Jim, I’m going to quote you from this morning’s Salisbury Post: “The county’s finance department also is requesting commissioners’ approval of a resolution authorizing the filing of a financing agreement with the Local Government Commission. According to the resolution, a one-half cent property tax hike is necessary to pay for the West End Plaza.”
Is there merit to this statement?”
Jim Sides: “Steve, the truth is that the debt service payment on the mall purchase will be approximately $500,000 per year for the next 10 years. This money has to come from somewhere, either revenue from the West End Plaza itself, the county fund balance, or a 1/2 cent tax increase. No decision has been made by the commission yet as to a tax increase. You fully understand that ANY tax increase of any amount will be blamed on the Mall purchase.”
Steve Mensing: Thanks Jim.
Jim Sides: Anytime Steve.
Vice-Chairman Craig Pierce emailed this response to the Post’s quote: “Steve, as a sitting commissioner, I can say that we have no agreement with the rest of the board for any tax increase. We have not seen the budget for 2014-15 so how could we make any decisions until we know how much revenue we need to operate the county?”
A previous interview with Chairman Jim Sides on the West End Plaza:
