CAC report:
Not unanimous

The Citizens Advisory Committee on School Funding spent nearly a year and a half investigating and deliberating the needs for funding the Wake County Schools. Their conclusion was that $148.3 million more dollars would be needed over four years to do what the school system wanted to do.
    The vote to accept was 15 to 1. Tom Owen, dissented. "I felt the committee had done good work, but completely ignored the economic environment in Wake County, today. The amount of money recommended, if fully funded by the County Commission, could require a tax increase every year or the net four years.
    If the school system continues to put the County Commission in the position of having to increase taxes every year, the schools run the real risk of taxpayer backlash. This could seriously hurt the good progress the schools have already made."
    Owen is a member of WCTA and president of the Taxpayer Education Foundation.

Annual Dues

Annual dues are due and payable now. They are $25, and include your immediate family. A form is attached to this newsletter. Please be sure your contact information is correct.
    If you would like to make an additional donation to the activities of the Association, you may include it with your dues. We have been told that we are not required to have a PAC to disburse funds for political activities.
    If you have any questions, please call Renee Newberry at 790-8918.
    Being a taxpayer also provides the opportunity to do something. Volunteer. We have no paid staff, so we need volunteers to get things done.

The Convention Center and the Hotel

It's back!
    Like a bad penny that keeps coming back, the convention center just won't die. Despite a resounding defeat 11 years ago, it is now the current headline for the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce.
    Do we seriously need it? Here are some considerations.
    City and County governments don't have the money to spend on this; but, the plan is to issue something called Certificates Of Participation. The problem with COPs - if the investiment doesn't pay off, the taxpayer is still on the hook to pay them off.
    Another thought - airlines are going broke. Why? Nobody is traveling. Business is cutting travel to convntions. What makes the council think people are going to travel to Raleigh?
    Raleigh is n ot an entertainment destination. It's a government center. We have some touris attractions. But, hardly enough to bring large numbers of people to Raleigh.
    We have been told the current civic center is too small, old, obsolete and loses money. Yet, we have also been told that it stays booked all the time and actually makes money.
    The best answer to all of this is a compromise. Let's refurbish the current center and add some additional exhibition space across Salisbury Street. It could be connected with a sky-bridge. That would answer the space "need" without bankrupting the community.
    This issue is important to each of us, partly because of its long-term tax liability and because it is totally unnecessary. It is being promoted by a small group downtown to line their own purses at our expense.
    The final argument against a new civic center is this: if it would really be profitable, then why don't these business men put their own "money where their mouth is and laugh all the way to the bank?" They want you and me to pay.
    Why should the city and county lose money? Why should all of the taxpayers of Wake County pay for it and recieve few or no benefits?
    How about the restaurant owners who are collecting the taxes? How will they benefit? If their restaurants are within a couple of miles radius of the civic center, they may get some business. But, this civic center is about enriching the property owners in downtown Raleigh. Everybody else in Wake County loses. Most restaurants pay in and get nothing.
    Call your County Commissioner and City Council member. Tell them how you feel. You can help stop it.

The Bonds are on the way

The Wake County School Board wants over $500 million to build new schools. Presumably, this would provide new classrooms for 3,000 new students per year over the next four years.
    Next, $48 million Raleigh Parks bonds to buy land and build more parks.
    Of course, the city is probably going to want big bonds to repair the water purification system; in fact,there are even more that we don't know about.
    Bonds are nothing but taxes delayed. Or taxes on the time payment plan. They're loans that must be paid with tax money over 20 or 30 years.
    Some bonds are always being paid off so taxes could be reduced if new bonds were not issued.
    The taxpayer, inevitably, continues paying.