By Tom Strini
Over the past 10 years, Rowan County’s budget has grown at an average annual rate of 4.51 percent while the Consumer Price Index has grown only 3.2 percent (most of us are lucky to keep up with CPI) and Social Security benefits have grown only 3.08 percent.
These figures are relevant because approximately 14.6 percent of residents in Rowan County live below the poverty line, based on U.S. Census Bureau 2019-2023 data and another 27 percent live in what are called “ALICE” (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households. In addition, 18 percent of Rowan County residents are over 65 and likely rely heavily on Social Security. As the county budget rises, so too does the tax burden on citizens and that burden falls most harshly on the poor and older taxpayers.
As reported in the Salisbury Post, at a recent forum several county commission candidates indicated a preference for a sales tax increase to fund increases in the county budget. Any tax increase, whether through property valuation increases, property tax rate increases or sales tax increases will hurt significant portions of our fellow citizens. It’s time for those in office, and those who seek to be, to recognize that while they can with legally the stroke of a pen increase the county’s income by extracting it from residents, those same residents do not have the luxury of simply going back to some bottomless well.
For most of us, the response to an unavoidable increase in one cost is to cut back on another. For retirees and those living at the margins that often means reducing things that most of us consider essential, like medical care and food. It is time for the county budget to be administered like most taxpayers handle their household budget, that is, work within existing income constraints, make the hard decisions among spending priorities and stop writing checks that someone else has to cover. Next year’s budget should be reduced 12 percent from the current one to get back in line with CPI over the past ten years and property tax rates reduced accordingly. Commissioner candidates should commit to all future budget increases never exceeding the lowest of the Social Security COLA and the CPI change.
Lastly, Republicans like to characterize Democrats as “tax and spend.” Since Republican-dominated Rowan County has a property tax rate that is nearly 15 percent higher than the average of those of Mecklenburg and Wake counties which are Democratic-dominated, which party is truly that of “tax and spend?” Bear that in mind when you go to the polls!
Tom Strini lives in Spencer
