By Ginny Hoyle : The Herald-Sun
Feb 18, 2008
CHAPEL HILL -- A Realtor-sponsored opinion poll concludes that the majority of Orange County voters would oppose a land transfer tax, but county officials say the results should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners, meanwhile, will hear the results of its own revenue options opinion poll on Tuesday -- when they must decide whether to include a sales tax or land transfer tax referendum on the May 6 ballot.
The Kitchens Group poll, sponsored by the N.C. Association of Realtors, surveyed 400 "likely" Orange County voters and found 68 percent to be against a 0.4 percent land transfer tax increase versus the 24 percent who supported it. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent, according to the pollster.
The poll questions, in addition to asking opinions about a land transfer tax referendum, also asked whether the likely voters would agree or disagree with the following statements:
-- "Adding taxes on new and existing homes will hurt working families by making homes less affordable and that is a bad idea (70 percent agree, 27 percent disagree, .04 percent unsure);
-- Our economy is going into a recession, and this is not the time for the county to be raising our taxes (75 percent agree, 22 percent disagree, .04 percent unsure);
-- Sales tax is the fairest tax because everyone pays it and you only pay it when you purchase items" (68 percent agree, 31 percent disagree, and .01 percent unsure).
"The Realtors got the results that they paid for," Commissioner Mike Nelson said. "Clearly the questions were a little slanted. My uncle could do the poll in a way that would get answer A, and my aunt could ask in a fashion that would get answer B. I don't trust polls done by special interest groups, generally speaking."
Nelson said Realtors and home builders advocating against the proposed revenue option don't have the best interest of Orange County schoolchildren at heart.
"And that's what this referendum is about, getting additional revenue streams so we can build schools for our children," Nelson said. "Are [voters] going to side with Realtors from Raleigh, or are they going to side with needs of our schoolchildren?"
Realtors and home builders have come out against the land transfer tax, which lobbyists have called a "tax on home equity," and instead expressed support for the proposed sales tax increase.
"We think [the land transfer tax] is an unfair discriminatory tax that unfairly targets one group of people -- those folks who are selling their property," said Timothy Kent, vice president and CEO of the North Carolina Association of Realtors. "We're talking about adding an additional tax that will strip homeowners of their hard-earned equity at the time of sale. That's fundamentally unfair."
But there might not be another option when it comes to addressing the county's budgetary shortfalls -- it's either approving a local revenue option or increasing property taxes and funding cuts for programs, said Commissioners Chair Barry Jacobs.
Based on the General Assembly's redistribution of sales tax, the county likely will lose more funding than it will gain.
"This is not going to be extra money for a spending binge," Jacobs said. "This is going to address previously articulated needs in areas where we know there is significant public support in Orange County, such as school and parks. At the worst, we're just replacing what we lost, and at the best, we'll make some headway at reducing some property tax increases."
In the last legislative session, state lawmakers approved a $20 billion budget that allows counties the option of a 0.4 percent land transfer tax or a quarter-cent sales tax increase.
The 0.4 percent land transfer tax increase -- an additional $800 on a $200,000 home -- would provide funds for schools or other infrastructure needs. The tax would be paid when a property owner sells a home, commercial property or vacant land to another party.
© 2008 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.