Grab your wallets, Charlotte! Tax hike incoming. | Hour 1

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. Also, I need to wish everybody a happy Sinco de mayo. Or Cinco de cuatro. Yes, Obama would call it mean Sinco de quatro. Grab your wallet, Charlotte, because if you are inside city limits, you are probably going to get nailed with a tax increase. A property tax increase, as was unveiled by the Charlotte City Manager, Marcus Jones yes day. Charlotte property owners could experience their highest tax hike in at least a decade under a proposed budget presented to the city council on Monday. This is a piece at the Charlotte Observer by Nick Sullivan. City Manager Marcus Jones is asking to increase property taxes by one point eight nine cents per one hundred dollars in valuation. So if you have a. One hundred thousand dollars home, right you would be paying well, right now, you pay twenty seven dollars and forty one cents per one hundred dollars in value. So you would have to then move the decimal point over and so you're at like two hundred and seventy four for one hundred dollars for ten thousand dollars, twenty seven forty one for one hundred thousand, Like this is one hundred thousand dollars valuation, or they say it's just five dollars and seventy one cents per month. Additionally, that's it. And as the former county commissioner Parks Helms noted a long time ago when raising property taxes at the county level, that's just the cost of. Some fries at Chick fil a. That's that's all. You're just it's just an additional you know, order of fries at Chick fil a. That's all five dollars and seventy one cents a month on top of what you are already paying. And if you put it out through the you know, you do the math on that for the whole year. You're at somewhere in the neighborhood of about seventy dollars per year, on top of the current city rate, and on top of the Mecklenburg County rate, and on top of oh yes, the water and sewer fees, which are also going up. Utility fees would also increase under this proposal. Every cent generated under the increase would fund the police and fire departments and help cover pay raises that are quote higher than what is typical for police and firefighters. Okay, so this. Increase is being billed as necessary for essential services. It's for police and fire. That's how they always frame this stuff. Always. It's always like, hey, we know that, like, you expect a certain level of service for your tax dollar, and so if we want to raise taxes, we're not going to raise the taxes to pay for stuff that you don't think are essential services. We will say we're raising the taxes to fund essential services, the stuff that everybody agrees to, right. Like, the part not spoken here is that there aren't a whole bunch of cuts that they are making two other things in order to pay for these pay raises for police and fire. Because if you don't want to see your taxes increase. Then what will they say, Well, why don't you want to support pay raises for police and fire? Right, So, later on in the story it says it's got a quote here from Marcus Jones who told reporters, quote, it's critical that we keep pace with the growth and we continue to provide exceptional services every day. Yes, it's important to keep pace with growth, except for growth in jail construction, as we have been documenting here, right, we have all these people moving into the city of Charlotte all the time, into Mecklimburg County all the time, but we don't need any more jail space. Even though the sheriff Gary not my. Fault, McFadden has said that the jail is now overcrowded. Of course, he blames Arena's law, which requires him to hold people that are brought in and charged with like more violent defenses, whereas he would prefer to just like cut him loose, you know, promise to appear. But now you got to have some bond, you got to put some money up, and that has caused the jail to be overcrowded, which makes sense because if you're just going to you know, just release everybody once they're brought in, or a large portion of the people that are arrested, if you just you just release them, then you obviously don't need as many beds. I mean, the logic is undeniable here. But no, we don't want to keep pace with the growth when it comes to jail space, even though our jails are overcrowded. But everything else we need to keep pace with the growth. This is a four point five billion dollar financial plan for twenty twenty seven. Four and a half billion. This is of all transfers, including aviation funds, Charlotte Area Transit, Charlotte Water, storm water, and the general government funds. According to the city's press release, one billion dollars is for the general fund budget and that is a ten and a half percent increase from this year. So it's a ten and a half percent increase in the general fund, which like that seems kind of high to me, ten and a half percent year to year, but I am no. City Administrator Jones is also asking for a one hundred and twenty five million dollar bond referendum for affordable housing as he raises taxes. Ah Man, this housing has become so unaffordable here. The cost of living is unaffordable here. Gosh, if only there was something we could do. I know, we can raise taxes and do more bonds which raise taxes in the future, and then use the money that we've extracted out of the residents via the property taxes to pay for subsidies for their housing because it's been made so unaffordable by our raising of the taxes. Yes, this makes perfect sense. There's this is actually a very large increase. This is going to go to voters. It's a bond referendum, and there is a special carve out for displacement efforts as the region invests in expanded transit opportunities. What does that mean? Means people are going to be losing their homes I seventy seven. I'm looking in your direction, right. People are going to be displaced with the transit plan, and so they want to have a whole bunch of money there to assist people that they kick out of their homes in order to give them transit. The bond referendum is a normal recurring ask, but this year's value is higher than past years. I'll say I believe it went to twenty five million. Yes, here it is later on in the story. It is the largest ever ask for the planned Affordable Housing Bond referendum that goes before voters every two years. Every two years, Charlotte voters typically approve these bonds without much resistance. In twenty twenty four, voters approve the city's request to double the housing bond from fifty million to one hundred million in and now they want to push it to one hundred and twenty five million in just two years. So you went from fifty million to one hundred and twenty five million in two years. Like that's what I'm looking at here. It's like as a seventy five million dollar increase in affordable housing bonds. Okay, As I mentioned the current tax rate twenty seven dollars forty one cents per one hundred dollars of assessed value. The city has only raised property taxes twice in the past years, ten years, twice, two times over a decade. So this isn't a big deal. You know, they haven't done it a lot. I mean they have revalued, right, They've done the revaluations which increased people's property value, which means the rate doesn't have to go up. While they still extract more real dollars from residents. The most recent increase was way back in twenty twenty four, so like two years ago, it went up by one point thirty seven, and that was to pay for arts and culture grants, but also public safety and some capital investments. But this increase, it's all for police and fire, okay, all right, So you can't be opposed to it unless you hate police and fire. I think that's how that goes. You know, Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and art. Stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven in Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your love ones videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. All right, let's uh, I guess we'll go over here and chat with Dean. I think I got them on the air now, Dean, welcome to the program. I cannot hear Dean. Still don't hear Dean. Post a bond there? Hang on, Dean, all right, hang on, hang on, Dean, I need you to start over again. I could not hear you, So go ahead, start over. Okay. So I had one question first, who you brought up about bonds and you know the costs and everything, and we're not now we got to bond people. If you put a bond up and then you go to trial, do you get all the money back for the bond or do they take a fee? If you put up your own money, you get your money back the money that you put up, right, the money that you put up is there to ensure that you show up to court. Okay, so we go through all that process and everything, and so we sort of have to shoulder the price of that, and they get all their money back. So well, yeah, I mean if I got arrested for something and then they drop all the charges because I was innocent, they should not get to keep any of my money. Yeah, but you get you get the money back even if you're guilty, right. M I guess. So yeah, I don't know. I've never been charged with, you know, a crime like that to go to trial and be found guilty, So I don't know, but yeah, I assume you always get your money back because the bond is simply there to ensure that you show up, or the rate or they put a bond on you that's so high to ensure that you don't bond out and you because you're a threat to the public. Yeah. I just wondered, because if you start bonding everybody, I'm sure those costs are going to accelerate a lot. And I just wondered how they get paid for and all that of the bondsmen and holding the money. In well a bond. So that's so bail bondsmen are private enterprises they're separate entities, and so they what they will do is they will say, like, let's say, you know, I've got one hundred thousand dollars bond put on me, and so I go to a bondsman, and the bondsman will put up the ten thousand, you know, ten percent or whatever he'll put up. The bondsman will put up a portion of that in my stead. And so then if I were to skip town, then it would be on the bondsmen to come find me. And that's how you end up with like dog the bounty hunter. Yeah, but they I'm sure they take a fee for putting up your bond. Yes they do. The bondsmen do. Yes, it is non refundable. Yeah, yes, because they have to make money too, so right, so they charge a fee for putting. Up the large amount of money. Okay, because then because if I don't show up, then they lose that money. Yeah. Well, and you said it's a business, and I just wondered how the how we as a taxpayer, you know, sort of get in snarled. And there's no there's no real cost to the taxpayers on the bonding side, except for whatever administrative costs there may be but you're already going through a process. So there you know, your case is already being administered. So there's very limited amount of impact on whether or not, you know, someone gets a bond or or not, or is ordered to put up a bond or not. Well, I just told neither one of us have to find out. So same same thing. Yeah, he on this on the taxes and for the police and the fire and all that. I know, they reassess your properties. I don't know, maybe that's why the two every five years or something. I think they reassess properties so they get they get a bump there, so that and that's sort of compensating for inflation. But you know, on the police, and can't they tie that in to take a standard inflation rate or something, and so it's not like a big surprise or you know, a huge burden at one point in time rather than a little bit you know every year or something. At least. Yeah, they do, and they have been doing that. They've got the police and fire have they've got steps you know where it's like after a certain amount of years you get this big bump and so they they you know, they know all of that and then they do cost of living increases for all city workers, you know, three percent here, two and a half percent this year, whatever, and so that's always built in those annual sort of cost of living raises. That stuff's already built in. This is a massive increase, ten percent pay raises for police officers and seven percent raises for firefighters. But is this a renegotiation or new negotiations of a contract, you know, the existing standards you said, there's. No there's no union that they're negotiating with on this stuff, because public sector unions cannot collectively bargain in North Carolina and they cannot strike. So the city just says, like, this is what the this is what we're paying for police and fire. They have to raise it more for police, they say, because they are having a problem attracting and retaining police officers, and they don't really have that big of a problem with attracting and retaining firefighters, but still they want to raise their pay by these large amounts. And you know, I would just venture to guess, I think maybe some people may not want to be a police officer or stay on the police force in Charlotte, given you know, the recent developments over the last decade, and the animosity expressed towards law enforcement that may have something to. Do with all this. Okay, got it? Thanks right, yes, sir, Yes, sir, all right, Thanks Dean. I appreciate the call. Yeah, I do wonder what kind of impact, you know, trash talking cops for a decade. I do wonder if that might have something to do with people not wanting to work for a city where they're going to be trash talked. We may never know. From the text line, Scott says, parks Helms, Oh, that's right. I was incorrect. I was mistaken when I said parks Helms said that the increased cost to property tax owners would just be the cost of some. Fries at Chick fil A. He actually said, it's the cost of a chicken sandwich and a small cup of slaw. Right, that's the SoundBite they played, Keith Larson, he played that SoundBite for years. It's just a cup of slaw. It's just a chicken sandwich and a cup of slaw. That's right, Thank you, Scott. David says, do you think that Charlotte is doing this because they know that property tax reform is coming at the state legislature and they want to get ahead of it. Surely they would not do something like that. No, No, you don't want to lock in the higher rates now while you can just in case the state limits your ability to raise property tax rates in some manner in the future. I'm sure they're not looking ahead like that. Yeah, of course they are looking ahead. Don says in a broader context, I believe that this is a preemptive move. So the Democrats can talk about how the elimination of property tax increases in North Carolina is a direct hit on critical functions. They will say that the Republican House in North Carolina does not care about the safety of its citizens, and that's why they're trying to control property taxes. You have very much along the same lines as David's comment, Jimma says, or Jim A. Jima anyway says, with this new budget, who is going to get a settlement this time? Let's see, maybe the fire chief since the police chief got it last time. Is that how that worked? Probably don't. I don't think that's how that works. Seven one seven number says, this tax increase makes no sense. I thought the Left was all about defunding the police. Well, I think you know mistakes were made, things were said, so you know, maybe there was some redirection of funds over the last ten years or so, and so now they need to kind of build it back up again. But the thing is, the words that were said were pretty hurtful and sent a message. And once somebody who wants to be a police officer or is a police officer, once they hear that stuff coming from their city officials and from a large portion of the Democrat base, they'll just go someplace else if they even come here at all, Right, they'll just find work in a surrounding county. And then you're trying to recruit them from those surrounding counties to come work here. And the only thing that you're basically offering is more money, right, but if the working conditions. And by the way, this is a theme that we're going to circle back to Pasaki style. We're gonna circle back on this because there was a very interesting survey that came out about teachers right after the big Raleigh rally, you know, on COMI Day on Friday. So we'll get to that. Beth's favorite Russ says, this guy filling in stinks. When does Pete come back on that's a good point. He'll be on at noon today. Pete returns at noon. I oh, this is Gary. I wonder how many people prefer the arts and expanding the rail lines versus giving cops and firefighters raises. FYI, I know Charlotte fire that have had weapons pulled on them responding to traffic wrecks, et cetera. They are not armed and responding to medical calls regularly, yeah, they are. Actually people think it's ems, but it fire rolls on all medical emergencies first or at the same time. So Jack says firefighters don't work, but eight days a month they work twenty four hour shifts. Well yeah, I mean they work twenty four hour shifts and they stay at the firehouse so they can deploy right immediately. They can roll with the trucks and stuff, unlike Volley fire departments, where a lot of them, you know, will go to the firehouse first, or they'll go to the scene, or they keep their stuff in their vehicles. And some volleys do you know, have them? I would imagine actually all volleys have them. I'm just that can back to the one in the town that I grew up in, the one that I had they were volunteer, but they expanded and they had people that were, you know, basically on staff all day, twenty four hour shifts. They sleep there and everything else. But if they work, they don't work eight days a month, well that would make sense because that would be four weekends, so they just space them out differently. And Stan says, in regards to property tax increases in Charlotte, the amount of the taxes never the paramount issue, but the rights lost. Due to extraction method. With the acceptance of property taxes, we agreed that there was no such thing as private property and those jurisdictions any longer. From that point forward, you and the government were in co ownership arrangement and the only question to be answered in the future was what percent to each of you own, And we know in whose favor that goes. The average property. Tax on a median priced home in Charlotte right now is estimated to be three hundred and ten dollars per month and going higher. Right now. In Charlotte Metro the median family income is eighty two thousand, and on average, you would need approximately one hundred twenty thousand income per year to qualify for that monthly payment. The last thing you need is an extra three hundred and ten per month on top of that, exactly where Marxists running. This city want you. Yeah, because if you don't pay your taxes, then you lose the house. So people make this argument like do you actually own it if you can lose it like that. Let me jump over here to Calvin. Hello, Calvin, welcome to the show. Take hell, property tax man, property tax man, property tax that's laughable price of a kicking sandwich and fries. I've got nine rental, Charlotte said, I bought around two thousand and ten. Twelve thirteen, the profit tax have gone at four hundred percent. Yeah, I don't doubt that at all. I mean, because that's the thing when they do these budget proposals. They show you, Okay, this is the city plan and we're only going to raise it a little bit, and then you got the county plan. And if they're not going to raise it this year, they're going to raise it next year. And like when I was a reporter, this would be the pattern, Like the city would go with a property tax increase one time, and then the next time would be the county commissioners. Right, so they would but it was basically every year, and when it's the county tax rate going up, then that affects. The City of Charlotte as well. So practically speaking that you know, Charlotte residents have been seeing tax increases far more often than just the city tax rate increases. Right, Yeah, I'm trying to sell there. That's all right. You made a good point, Calvin. I appreciate the call, and I got to run to the traffic update anyway, but thank you for the call, Calvin. No it this is the squeeze. And then meanwhile, they run all of these bonds for quote, affordable housing, right, and you know, now you've got you've got people that are getting taxed on their housing, not being able to afford the housing because it's too expensive, and then you're gonna throw a bunch of money at them for affordable housing. It's like, guys, I think we might need to reassess this this strategy. The City of Charlotte unveiled its proposed budget. By the way, there is a public hearing on this on May eleventh. Final budget adoption planned for June eighth. The twenty twenty six proposal includes two other bond asks, one two hundred and sixty six million for transportation upgrades like street resurfacing and sidewalks, and another forty four million for other neighborhood projects. Also, utility fees would increase under the proposal. Solid waste. That would be your trash collection increasing by one dollar and thirty eight cents per month, and water and sewer increasing by four dollars and forty one cents per month, and storm water by forty eight cents to a typical user's monthly fee. And then there's this sentence Jones, the city manager. Jones did not elaborate more on the fee increases, right, but as a commenter at the Charlotte Observer's website pointed out, nobody asked maybe somebody should have asked about the increase in the utility fees. Just a thought there. Let me jump over and chat with Ralph. Hello, Ralph, welcome to the show. Hey Pete. As a senior system, I'd like to see Bill Barber take this up. Senors in their early years, they're not gonna be using, hopefully not that many services. I think you should cap it at point two five on six thousand dollars. That's what I paid last year on two houses. And everything that would be fifteen hundred dollars, that's fifteen hundred dollars under Social Security would be a lot more manageable and everything, especially for the seniors that are not working at all and everything, instead of trying to soak them every time every year, you know, while they're on a fixed income. Well, there are programs I think they're called, right, the Homestead Acts that states have put in place. They do discounts for probably income qualified seniors for that very situation. And I will be honest, I don't know if Mecklenburg has that kind of a policy or if the state has that kind of a law, or if it's allowed or not, but I am aware of those types of programs that do exist. You can do them and keep seniors in their homes for longer. Yeah. Sure, I had the pleasure to meet park Hands a couple of times, as I'm in real estate too, but it was. A Chick fil ace in which coleslaw. Yes we've teased yeah, in order that. Yeah, thank you for your service, y s information. All right, thanks for the call. Good to hear from you, Ralph. I appreciate it. Yeah, I mean. He was talking about and this was the common tactic, and they'll still use it, I'm sure, which is it's just a little bit of an increase. See, it's not much. In addition to, right, they just say, and well, they don't ever say in addition to they say, Look, it's only five dollars a month, and for five dollars a month, that's a small cup of coffee. So like, you know, look at the comparison, it's only five dollars, right, but it's five dollars a month on top of and here's the other thing not mentioned in the in the story, which is that it is in addition to what is expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of you know, hundreds of dollars. I think it was like something around three hundred dollars, and in the increase in the average households cost thanks to the sales tax increase. Right, so you already are paying the increase sales taxes on everything except for I think you know, certain food items. But now with the transportation referendum that just got passed in November, that's going up starting July first, the sales tax is going up and so and so would this by the way, this would take effect on July first as part of the new fiscal year. And so you've got that increase at the same time as a city property tax increase, right, so it's not only you know whatever the numbers work out to be of about say three hundred dollars in addition, and that's just the that's just sort of like the average home value and the additional cost burden. So and so a three hundred dollars increase plus another three hundred dollars plus increase due to the sales tax. So now you're at like six hundred dollars from year to year that you've just gone up year to year. Some of the other things in the city. These press release that. They highlight two point three million for the addition of an engine at Miranda Road at fire engine infil station to improve response times, four million in funding for fire turnout gear and other critical safety equipment, ten million to construct a new helicopter hangar for CMPD and another ten million planned for fiscal year twenty twenty eight. So there is that. Let me go to. The text line and get some of these in before the break. There's been pressed recently about Democrats wanting to impose wealth taxes on super rich aren't taxes on real property already a form of wealth tax? Yeah, Charlotte, stormwater charge is greater than my actual water. Usage, as ys you. And let's see trying to get brand in here to load up here we go. Don't forget the value as Yeah, the revals are what kills people too, is because as your home value goes up and the rate stays static. If your house gets revalued to you know, you go from one hundred thousand dollars home to a two hundred thousand dollars home. Well, now you know, if you're paying like, just for math purposes, say ten percent, then ten percent of one hundred thousand is less than ten percent of twenty thousand, so in real dollars, yeah, you're getting hit. Wesley says property taxes are immoral in the first place. They are also a direct violation of constitutional property rights. I don't understand why people still fight to pay them and income taxes no matter the amount, And Jeff says seniors can get a reduction in property tax if their income is less than thirty eight eight hundred. So there you go, thank you, Jeff. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.