THREE REASONS TO VOTE NO ON THE NEW 10-YEAR SALES TAX
1 – It is not just a "Penny" Tax. County Council did not have the decency to say that the 'penny' amounts to $285 per person per year for 10 years. For a couple that is $5,700. For a family of 4 it is $11,400. That is far from a penny!
2 – The Referendum is too broad and poorly defined. If we approve this 10-year vague list of projects of which we know little, Council will assume we have approved all the projects on that list. Sure, they will talk about review committees and later chances, but well documented history has shown the County will act the opposite: they will stack the committees, ignore public comments, and citizens will have lost control. It is much better that we force the county to provide more detail on projects in smaller batches according to urgency, and give taxpayers a chance to approve them once we understand them.
3 – Some say that public comments will be honored. History shows that is false.
· There were over 500 comments during the public hearings for the 2018 Corridor Project and over 11,500 comments via a petition. Most were ignored.
· Before a critical vote, the County Council Vice Chair said to voters and a Town Council-person: “We are not going to vote on your comments, whether you like it or not, we’re not going to, but we’re going to let you make those comments, if you’d like to, at the end of the meeting”.
· A previous County Council Chair is documented to have arm-twisted the County Administrator to not consider public comments.
· A Town mayor promised to leave no stone unturned, but then reversed himself and cut off answering public questions.
· Past oversight committees have been stacked. Just recently, members of a secret chamber-linked lobby group succeeded in getting another of their members onto the County Transportation Committee.
· A recent editorial in The State summed it up: “It is impossible to overstate how little trust Beaufort County government deserves right now.”
BOTTOM LINE
Given County Council’s history, it is dumb for Citizens to give up their leverage in advance, by blanket approving a 10-year $950 Million bucket of poorly defined projects, with so little detail.
If you Vote No, good projects will not necessarily die. But the County will have to do more careful and transparent planning and disclosure with our money. That is good!
If you vote YES, there is no reason that the County will need to consider any further citizen comments. They can do what they want.
Citizens must retain financial control (by VOTING NO) until we see project details. Worthy projects should sail through. There is time, since the County cannot even manage this number of projects at once.