Orange County NC Website
^ The name of this tax is a problem -since you can't change the name, it perhaps needs to be <br />referred to as "the land transfer tax for education" (NOT the "Home Tax"i); it's a problem and a <br />remedy -the problem is it's called the land transfer tax, but what does it remedy? you need to <br />educate folks about what its going to fix <br />^ Need to explain what a LTT is and give some examples of how it works; if you own a house at <br />$200,000 or $300,000 then your LTT whenever you sell it would be this amount and that would <br />equate to x number of cents on the tax rate and what the dollar savings would be every year <br />^ To be fair, could point out that if you own certain property, someone buys it and develops it, that <br />the property could see this tax each time it changes hands, but you'll only have to pay it one time <br />^ You could pay the equivalent amount of ad valorem tax increase at the current rates for 17.8 <br />years before it would equal the amount you would pay on a land transfer tax on a $200,000 <br />house; based on what one cent on the tax rate generates, if the LTT doesn't pass, it would take a <br />tax rate increase of about 2.7 cents to produce the same revenue <br />^ Concern about how to deliver the facts because based on the survey, Orange County folks don't <br />read the newspaper or watch the news; on the other hand, they go to church and to community <br />functions; and people listen to things in those settings <br />^ That points out that you have to use a shotgun approach -can't count on just one approach <br />^ Members of community groups tend to be leaders who will share what they hear <br />^ Should invest in a canned PowerPoint presentation that all speakers could use <br />^ County will provide a webpage, will get it up pretty soon, even though it will. be a work in <br />progress <br />^ Northern part of the~County doesn't have cable; regular TV advertising could be cost-prohibitive <br />and covers a huge area; not sure if there's a practical way to get to the northern part of the <br />County through TV <br />^ News coverage of this issue is another way of getting the word out; also press briefings; <br />editorials draw attention to the issue and may cause people to try to learn more about the issue <br />^ BOCC needs to be able to address a big frustration for many taxpayers in Orange County -the <br />lack of commercial development to offset the residential tax base; that's not an alternative that <br />can really be on the table as it won't solve the immediate problem -that's long-term <br />consideration <br />^ A question everyone will have is "what happens if the real estate market crashes? Where will the <br />revenue for schools and parks come from?" <br />^ If the Committee breaks into small groups going forward (e.g. FAQ, presentation, group to work <br />on Google docs, group to work with possible media consultant), still need entire committee to <br />come together periodically to stay abreast of what other small groups are doing so there's a <br />consistent message <br />^ Should consider identifying a group of existing community groups <br />^ Could create a spreadsheet to identify groups that members know of and whether they have <br />contacted the group about their interest in having a speaker <br />