Northwest Observer Forums > Northwest-Area Towns > Summerfield > A History Of Local Taxation In Summerfield
Northwest Observer Forums > Northwest-Area Towns > Summerfield > A History Of Local Taxation In Summerfield |
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Jim Flynt Member
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I am hoping that one or more of the Summerfield Forum members could perhaps share a little unbiased history of the property tax imposed by the Town Council of Summerfield on its' residents. My further question is whether you can share as well what promises were made prior to incorporation regarding imposition of a local tax. And, who were the members of the Summerfield Town Council at the time of passge of a locally imposed tax, and which members voted for and which may have voted against imposition of such local tax. Was the Summerfield town tax imposed by a citizen vote and referendum or by mandate by members of the Summerfield Town Council? Thank-you for your consideration of the request which I think would be most enlightening to many who weren't on top of the issues during those earlier days of town government or were not residents of Summefield at that time. Since Stokesdale has purchased park lands, proposed a new town hall, made several large contributions to the fire department, community park and local school and constructed a town water system without imposing a local town property tax, I am most especially curious why Summerfield saw a need to impose a tax which Stokesdale didn't? Finally, have the FFS (Friends For Summerfield) adopted a position on this issue with regard to a Summerfield local government imposed property tax? Last edited on Mar 17th, 2007 01:23 am by Jim Flynt |
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DOGGETTJA Member 
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I think we should adopt a policy of encouraging Stokesdale to continue to not charge a tax. Summerfield and the Towns who do charge a tax get a larger percentage of the sale tax revenue the less towns that share. Bill Peterson promised that as long as Summerfield got the sales tax share then there would be no taxes in Summerfield. Guilford County had a choice they could share the sales tax with all towns, which is the way it was when the Towns incorporated.Or they could change it and only share with Towns that also charged a property tax. The Towns in the Northwest were very frugal with their money and built up large reserves. Guilford County got tired of being pushed for money all the time while we up here in the Northwest continued to accrue nest eggs so they changed. The councils in Summerfield and Oak Ridge were not willing to let all their sales tax money go to Guilford County so they changed the charters and charge a tax. Summerfield charges 4.5Cents on a hundred I believe. So if you happen to live in a $500,000 house, which I can assure you I do not, you would pay 1,100 in taxes to the Town of Summerfield and in turn the Town gets is share of the sales tax. I don't remember now what the rate of reimbursement is from the county. Summerfield has also taken over its cable franchise and has the ABC revenue to help add to its income. Nowadays a town can not incorporate in North Carolina with out charging a tax and have to provide certain services largerly due to the incorporations that took place around the time of ours here in the Northwest. Towns popped up purely and simply for the purpose of not being incorporated by the larger Towns and then turned around and expected the county to continue to support them. |
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Jim Flynt Member
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Jane, Thank-you for sharing your response to a portion of my original question. When did Summerfield impose the tax on it's citizens and was this done by a referendum of citizens voting or by mandate of the Summerfield Town Council. If it was the later, who was on the Summerfield Town Council at that time and which TC members voted for and which voted against the imposition of a local property tax? |
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DOGGETTJA Member
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The Town went for a year with out any sales tax income so I think it was possibly now the 4th year coming up that a tax has been charged. It was a mandate from the council with support from the finance committee as I remember. It was a council made of the 4 old members there now plus Mike and me. I think a unanimous vote. |
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Jim Flynt Member
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DOGGETTJA wrote: The Town went for a year with out any sales tax income so I think it was possibly now the 4th year coming up that a tax has been charged. It was a mandate from the council with support from the finance committee as I remember. It was a council made of the 4 old members there now plus Mike and me. I think a unanimous vote. Jane, again Thanks. How controversial and contentious was the tax imposition at the time it was debated and mandated by Town Council? |
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DOGGETTJA Member
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We got majorly beat up by the Concerned Citzens. |
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Jim Flynt Member
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DOGGETTJA wrote: We got majorly beat up by the Concerned Citzens. I am more curious what kinds of crowds attended any hearings and Town Council sessions at the time prior to the tax imposition and how vocal were those crowds then? Were there also others who voiced public support for the tax? Last edited on Mar 17th, 2007 02:33 am by Jim Flynt |
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DOGGETTJA Member
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35 people maybe? I really don't remember. It was pretty typically 5 or so speakers and then the rest supporters. |
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FatPappy Member 
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FatPappy wrote:He needs to step down now. |
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S. Smith Moderator
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Jim Flynt wrote:
I honestly don't know of any place where citizens would come up and say, "Council, please charge us a tax!!" The local town charters of Summerfield and Oak Ridge, which I'll add here that the citizens overwhelmingly voted in favor of, say the town councils can at any time levy a tax of up to 20 cents per $100 without a vote of the citizens. It's been really interesting to watch the differences between Oak Ridge and Summerfield since they incorporated fairly close to the same time. They both started charging a tax the year after the county commissioners' decision. Summerfield's tax the first year was 10.5 cents. This was at the same time they were proposing a municipal building/sheriff's substation, and the council got majorly beat up that year. The next year, they dropped their tax to 5 cents per $100; last year they dropped it to 3.8 cents per $100. Oak Ridge imposed a tax rate of 8.65 cents per $100 and the tax rate has remained constant since that first year. A few citizens were opposed to imposing a tax, but there was no groundswell. Interestingly, last year when the budget was passed, not even a single Oak Ridge citizen had a question about it. In the last couple of years, Oak Ridge has built a new town hall and purchased land and allocated money for a 66-acre park -- again, with no real opposition. |
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Jim Flynt Member
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S. Smith wrote:
Oak Ridge imposed a tax rate of 8.65 cents per $100 and the tax rate has remained constant since that first year. A few citizens were opposed to imposing a tax, but there was no groundswell. Interestingly, last year when the budget was passed, not even a single Oak Ridge citizen had a question about it. In the last couple of years, Oak Ridge has built a new town hall and purchased land and allocated money for a 66-acre park -- again, with no real opposition. Sandra, I wonder if you would also comment and share your perspective on the 3rd sister's (Stokesdale) approach to governance without having imposed a tax. From my perspective, Stokesdale has remarkably achieved as much or more than either Oak Ridge or Summerfield, all the more so when recognition is given to the fact that Stokesdale has purchased land for a park and has plans for a new town hall to be built within the immediate future. How is it and why is it that Stokesdale can achieve these things without a tax which even Summerfield has not been able to achieve even considering that they tax their citizens. What am I missing here? (Please note: This question is specifically addressed to Sandra) |
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S. Smith Moderator
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Jim Flynt wrote: Sandra, I wonder if you would also comment and share your perspective on the 3rd sister's (Stokesdale) approach to governance without having imposed a tax. From my perspective, Stokesdale has remarkably achieved as much or more than either Oak Ridge or Summerfield, all the more so when recognition is given to the fact that Stokesdale has purchased land for a park and has plans for a new town hall to be built within the immediate future. Well, first, I'm not quite sure this question was addressed specifically to me. I'm sure others have comments on this as well. I don't think you're missing anything. I wasn't saying any one town is right and any other town is wrong for the decisions that have been made. I was just pointing out the differences in how things have thus far worked out in two towns (Oak Ridge and Summerfield) that are relatively the same age. You're right -- Stokesdale has not yet levied a tax. Some might argue that Summerfield and Oak Ridge have accomplished things that Stokesdale has not. Here are my observations: • Oak Ridge is 9 years old. Oak Ridge has built a town hall. Oak Ridge has purchased land for a park and has allocated money for its construction. Oak Ridge has a full-time town administrator, a full-time clerk and a part-time deputy clerk. Oak Ridge contracts with the county for planning and enforcement. Oak Ridge has worked out an arrangement to get water at no cost to the town. Oak Ridge has imposed a property tax for the last 3 years of 8.65 cents per $100. I think Oak Ridge has in the neighborhood of $4-5 million in the bank. • Summerfield is 11 years old. Summerfield has a town hall (even though it was donated and a lot of the work to restore/renovate it was done by volunteers, they still have upkeep costs). Summerfield has purchased property, initially for a new town hall/sheriff's substation, and has plans for the building. Summerfield has built a park, has allocated money for the second phase of construction if the grant is received, and has allocated money for athletic fields. Summerfield has a full-time town administrator, a full-time clerk, a part-time planning department employee and has an opening for a full-time planner. Summerfield handles its own planning and enforcement issues. Summerfield has made no provisions for water. Summerfield has imposed a property tax of 10.5, 5 and 3.8 cents per $100, respectively, in the last 3 years. Summerfield has in the neighborhood of $9 million in the bank. • Stokesdale is 18 years old. Stokesdale rents space for its town hall. Stokesdale has purchased land for a park and municipal complex, although construction has not yet begun and funding has not been determined. Stokesdale has a part-time town clerk. Stokesdale contracts with the county for planning and enforcement. Stokesdale has a water system (most of the money for which was supplied by grants). Stokesdale has not levied a property tax. Stokesdale has in the neighborhood of $3 million in the bank. I'm trying my best to be absolutely parallel and consistent in my comparisons here. I'm sure there are things I've missed here and I invite others to join in this conversation. Is one town right and another town wrong? Anybody else got opinions on this? |
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Jim Flynt Member
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Sandra, Thanks for your comments and perspectives. The only one other thing which you missed is that Stokesdale does have a full-time deputy for police protection for one shift, which is paid for by the Town of Stokesdale. Oh yeah, and we have a nice privately developed arboretum along Main Street too (with more to come)! Last edited on Mar 17th, 2007 03:10 pm by Jim Flynt |
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S. Smith Moderator
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Jim Flynt wrote: Sandra, Thanks for your comments and perspectives. The only one other thing which you missed is that Stokesdale does have a full-time deputy for police protection for one shift, which is paid for by the Town of Stokesdale. Oh yeah, and we have a nice privately developed arboretum along Main Street too (with more to come)! You are correct. |
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Jim Flynt Member
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Sandra, it would be helpful to the audience understanding if we could also dig up or find out the following which would be helpful to a comparison and contrast of the three Northwest communities: (1) How much additional tax revenue is generated by the locally imposed town taxes which are imposed by Summerfield and Oak Ridge in excess of other income sources outside of the direct town tax? (2) What is the total personnel costs to each of the 3 towns for the 4 full or part time employees in Summerfield, 3 (soon to be 4 with the advertisement for a fulltime parks director) in Oak Ridge, and the 1 part-time employee in Stokesdale? It seems to me that both Oak Ridge and Summerfield are clearly more interesting in building small government bureaucracies which quite obviously Stokesdale has resisted, and it would seem that the total annual costs of these personnel is a quite significant annual expense to both Summerfield and Oak Ridge. |
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Vicki White-Lawrence Member 
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I can only address issues in Stokesdale, since I live there and have "covered" Town Council meetings for the NWO for almost 7 years now. Although Stokesdale no longer receives the sales tax refund, it does receive franchise taxes from Cable TV services, beer and wine excise tax, ABC revenues, and utilities franchise tax. I would think this would be true of the other two towns as well. The most recent audit of the town shows just over $41,500 spent on salaries and benefits. Just under $70,000 was spent on public safety. The Stokesdale Town Council has made a point of investing in certificates of deposit and "shopping" for the best interest rates when they mature. They have chosen to operate using interest earned on these funds so that the principle they accrued thru the years funds the operations without being depleted itself. The most recent financial statement for the town, posted as of the end of February, shows total current assets of just over $4.5 million. |
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Shamu Member
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Sounds like the Stokesdale model is something to look at. I sometimes have to wonder what exactly the residents of Summerfield are getting for their taxes. I've spoken to some of the largest taxpayers in the area who have expressed the same question. |
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DOGGETTJA Member
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I can only address some of the things our taxes pay for but one of the biggies is we have our own planning department in Summerfield. What that does is insures that Summerfield's ordinances and visions are what drives the planning process. We had several incidences in the last couple years that we contracted with the County when that wasn't so. We have a full time administrator, and Clerk and hopefully soon a new planner. We have just built half a park and hopefully the other half will start this fall. The Town has paid the cost of paving all the unpaved roads left in Summerfield with the incorporation. When Summerfield incorporated the State no longer paved the roads. Millbrook is soon to be paved and that only leaves Strader to be paved and some of those neighbors won't sign the permission so that road has been taken off the list for the time being. The Town has other expenses such as the maintanence of the Town hall, Town Truck etc. The budge has 1/5 million dollars in it for ballfields purchase and developing. Those are some of the things I can think of. |
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Steve Adkins Member 
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DOGGETTJA wrote:
$1.5 Million |
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DOGGETTJA Member
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Whoops! Thanks Steve. |
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