Orange County NC Website
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57 <br />jurisdiction pays that amount of tax —it is an average amount paid by each citizen of that <br />jurisdiction. For example, there is a tax on beer and wine that collected $259,654 dollars in the <br />2015 fiscal year for Orange County. Since the county population is 140,144, this means on <br />average each citizen paid $1.85 in beer and wine tax. Of course, if a citizen did not purchase any <br />wine or beer, then they would not have paid the tax. <br />Furthermore, it was necessary to examine each revenue and expenditure amount in detail <br />to assign it to the proper locality. For example, the Chapel Hill transit system collected revenue <br />of $19.322 million in the 2016 fiscal year. If one was to simply divide this amount by the <br />number of residents, it would appear that Chapel Hill residents paid $324.37 per capita for transit <br />service. However, closer examination of the revenues shows that large portions of the revenue <br />comes from sources outside Chapel Hill. For example, the Chapel Hill transit system also <br />received $3.3 million in state and federal grants, $1.540 million from the town of Carrboro, and <br />$7.919 million from UNC.11 In short, approximately $12.8 million of transit system revenues are <br />from outside sources. 12 <br />Determining benefits received consisted of several different activities. The budgets were <br />examined to determine where certain monies were spent and on which localities. A second <br />method of determining benefits used was an online survey. Postcards were mailed to 1,000 <br />randomly selected addresses with a link to the survey. Furthermore, the link was distributed to <br />residents via email, facebook, and other methods. A total of 478 responses were received. <br />Benefits and taxes were then compared on a per capita basis by location. This was easier <br />for some taxes and benefits than for others. For example, the county has excellent records on <br />" UNC is of course funded to a large degree by federal and state tax dollars and grants. <br />12 Since a large portion of tax dollars paid to federal and state government is returned to counties and cities, it helps <br />to know the value of taxes paid to federal and state governments. Without this accounting, it would appear that local <br />government provided good and services are cheaper than they actually are which is a shortcoming of the 1989 <br />Wicker study. <br />CCM Economics, LLC Orange County Tax Equity Page 20 <br />