Some of North Carolina’s rural areas have been struggling economically for too long. We’re certainly sympathetic. But the proposal offered by the state Senate’s majority leader – to take money earned by urban communities and give it to poorer rural communities – is wrong. The legislature needs to find another way.
Currently, revenues from sales tax are distributed throughout the state according to the point of sale – money made from sales in Winston-Salem stays here. But state Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown of Jones County says he intends to file legislation that would distribute the money according to population, the Journal’s Wesley Young reported Tuesday. This would result in an annual loss of $2.4 million to Winston-Salem, $5.3 million to Forsyth County, almost $300,000 to Kernersville and about $150,000 to all the other municipalities in the county – a total of about $8 million in revenue each year - city officials told the Journal.
That’s not chump change.
“We have two concerns,” Winston-Salem City Manager Lee Garrity told the Journal. “In urban areas with shopping districts, we have built the infrastructure – the streets, fire and police protection. And people in urban areas tend to spend more of their money on discretionary items.” He also noted that the legislature has already killed other sources of city revenue, such as business license fees and certain business software.
And even though rural dwellers may come to the larger cities for some of their purchases, they do so because we’ve invested in the infrastructure to lure them. We deserve to reap the rewards.
Under the current system, “you’ve got about 20 winners and 80 losers,” Brown told the Journal. “I think over time we have started to develop two North Carolinas. We’ve got to find a way to make this fair.”
Fair is good. But the way he talks about getting there almost sounds like redistribution of wealth. If there are 20 “winners,” it’s because they’ve worked hard on successful growth strategies.
There are sensible ways for the legislature to help poor rural areas, such as assisting more with tourism development and environmental preservation, which go hand-in-hand. The legislature could also renew the historic preservation tax credits they allowed to expire this year, which help rural areas just as much as, if not more than, they do urban areas.
We’re glad that our county’s representatives in the legislature responded negatively to the suggestion. As N.C. Rep. Debra Conrad told the Journal, counties that lose revenue could be forced to raise property taxes to make up the difference. Nobody wants that.
N.C. Sen. Joyce Krawiec said that “I will certainly do all that I can to make certain that Forsyth County is protected from any revenue loss.”
Good for her.
Brown is right to try to help poor rural areas, but this is the wrong way to do it.
