New libraries cannot be casualties of Senate tax game
Published August 20, 2015
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, August 19, 2015.
Forsyth County library supporters have walked a long, hard road in their efforts to replace outmoded and aged-out libraries. Now some county commissioners are suggesting a further delay may be necessary if the state Senate’s new tax plan becomes law.
This is too much. The library projects need to be finished with no further delay.
In November 2010, Forsyth County voters overwhelmingly approved $40 million in library bonds for new or renovated libraries in Winston-Salem, Clemmons and Kernersville. Many options were considered for the downtown Central Library, including building a new facility or relocating to an already existing structure. It took until 2013 for Forsyth County commissioners to decide to keep the Central Library at its current site on Fifth Street, and it took until last month to get the renovation started.
In the meantime, Kernersville bought three acres for a new library in June. The Clemmons Village Council is looking for a site for a new library.
Now the commissioners say that if the state legislature changes the sales-tax-revenue distribution formula, as it’s trying to do, they may have to consider holding off on library construction, the Journal’s Meghann Evans reported last week.
During a briefing Thursday, commissioners Ted Kaplan and Gloria Whisenhunt discussed the state Senate’s tax plan, with which they disagree. Whisenhunt said that it was disappointing that Forsyth County’s senators, Paul Lowe and Joyce Krawiec, voted for it. We agree.
But the commissioners’ response to that bad idea was another bad idea.
“We may have to look at holding off on library construction. We may have to look at some other items that are coming up. But this is a serious event, and it’s going to mean big dollars to Forsyth County, and I think the legislature has way overstepped their responsibility,” Kaplan said. Whisenhunt and Chairman Dave Plyler made similar statements.
Currently, 75 percent of sales tax revenue stays in the county where the sale occurs and 25 percent is distributed based on county population. The Senate wants half of all sales tax revenue to be distributed based on point of sale and half based on population. That would cost Forsyth County about $1.5 million next year.
We urge our leaders in the state Senate to stop playing games with the tax structure. Cities and counties that have invested in their infrastructures deserve to reap their benefits.
We realize that rural areas, long the backbone of our state, continue to struggle. The legislature should help them through strategies including better support of tourism and agriculture, not through the wrongheaded sales-tax plan.
Whatever happens with that plan, we urge our county commissioners to persevere, even in the face of such Senate shenanigans, and follow the will of the people. Taxpayers have been waiting a long, long time for these needed facilities. By all rights, they should already have been completed.
Don’t let the people down. Find a way to do it.
