Cabarrus Cheap Seats

After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. - 2 Corinthians 12:14

Earlier this week, Cabarrus County Schools reported that their budget was increasing 20% from last year. This is to open and staff new schools.

The claim has been made by members of the old majority on the Board of Commissioners that they built schools without raising taxes. While it is true that they didn’t raise the then current tax rate, they approved massive amounts of debt without consulting the taxpayers. The aggregate expense was greater than many of the current TIF scenarios for the North Carolina Research Campus. They actually approved those projects with no plan and with the knowledge that new revenue would come from somewhere - but they were never clear as to where that money would come from. (Compare that to the NCRC where the City of Kannapolis had to prove that all of the money would come from greater values and not greater rates)

Now it’s obvious - it’s coming from us now and it ain’t getting any better. The Cabarrus Taxpayers’ Association (CTA)-controlled Board of Commissioners did not lower taxes…they didn’t even keep them low - they only deferred them. When Coy Privette complains about the tax rate, keep in mind it was him and his friends on the old majority that incurred the expense; but hid it from the public. This will result in us paying a higher rate than we would have earlier - that is the Cabarrus Youth Tax.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Before 2005, there was little control over growth. Partly because the CTA served low-end developers interests before that of the people. In fact, as late as July 2006, 80% of the contributions to the CTA during that cycle came from developers. While that in and of itself isn’t so bad, much of that money was used to criticize other candidates for - you guessed it - taking money from developers.

In 2005, after the election of Joni Juba and the relegation of the CTA to obscurity, the Board made moves to control growth. However, they could do nothing about the thousands of permits that sailed through the Board under CTA control. The schools that were built under the 2004 school bond (which I proudly campaigned for; but the CTA opposed) only covered the pre-2005 growth. After all of the old permits are built out - we’ll still need more schools. According to the 2007 Captial Improvement Plan - $182 Million dollars will have to come IN ADDITION to the bond the voters approved in 2004. This is, in large part, to approve growth approved before 2005.

There is a possibility that if you have a kid in school - she will probably get the opportunity to help pay for that school out of her own pocket. So it’s true that the Coy Privette and CTA-backed friends didn’t raise your taxes - they just gave your kid the tab.