Agenda - 06-07-2022; 8-a - Minutes

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38 1 process. She said that if she had left the higher value after the first appeal, she would be 2 paying taxes on $233,000 when her home is not worth that much. She said there is still a 3 problem with the calculations and homeowners don't know it. She said the deeper problem is 4 understanding what the tax bill means and what the levels are that can change a valuation. 5 Horace Johnson said he was frustrated by the lack of communication with Northern 6 Orange County. He said they did not find out about the program until mid-November, and the 7 deadline was December 15th. He said there is a problem with the way values are decided. He 8 asked if his neighbor Commissioner McKee buys a Mercedes Benz, but he is driving 1975 Ford, 9 should his car taxes go up on his car? He said that is what happens when someone builds a 10 new house in the neighborhood next to a house that has been there for 50 years. He said there 11 is something wrong with the logic. He said that it is amazing to hear that for the first time the 12 county is looking at the problems. He said oversight was poor, no one followed up. He said he 13 represented the Piney Grove neighborhood with Justice United, and he represented all of the 14 people they don't get to see. He said people asked him why they didn't find out. He said 15 implementation was poor. He said the Board should go to the neighborhoods and see if the 16 people need tax assistance. He said the county should tax the builders building all of the new 17 neighborhoods in the county, and then use the revenue to help the people who cannot afford to 18 pay their property taxes. He said people do not have broadband internet and lack access to 19 information. He said that when the bill is sent, also send out the resources. He said that 20 Durham has an assistance program that doesn't necessarily rely on tax increases. 21 Chair Price said that all of the commissioners received an email earlier that day from 22 Julia Sendor on behalf of Orange County Justice United Affordable Housing and that it would be 23 included in the meeting record: 24 25 Dear Board of County Commissioners, 26 1 am sending this message from the Orange County Justice United Affordable 27 Housing research team. Orange County Justice United is made up of 20 member 28 organizations countywide, and a 25-person research group has been working to 29 identify areas for making specific, tangible improvements in the affordable 30 housing crisis, especially focused on preserving existing affordable housing. 31 Please include this message in the official meeting minutes, as coming from the 32 Orange County Justice United Affordable Housing team. 33 At tonight's County Commissioners meeting, several members will speak, along 34 with partners in this work from the Jackson Center and EmPOWERMENT, Inc., 35 in support of expanding the access to and impact of the property tax assistance 36 program. 37 As context, we first heard during listening sessions last year with fellow Justice 38 United members, including many in Hillsborough and Northern Orange, that high 39 property taxes are making it hard for people to stay in their homes and hold onto 40 family land. Even for properties that didn't have the steep increases in their 41 assessments like neighborhoods in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the tax burden is 42 still inequitable for households with lower incomes. 43 Then, group members met several times over the past 6 months with County 44 staff to better understand options for improving LHA program outreach 45 (especially in Hillsborough and Northern Orange, where there was initially less 46 activity), hear the results of the pilot, and learn about opportunities for community 47 feedback to expand the benefits of the program to more people, and with greater 48 impact for those people. 49 We collaborated with County staff to organize program outreach sessions at 50 Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church, and Lattisville Grove Missionary Baptist