Giving local voters control of a variety of new county-revenue options doesn’t get the vote of Buncombe County Rep. Bruce Goforth, according to N.C. Policy Watch. Goforth opposed a legislative study committee’s proposals for local control over such revenue generators as county-impact fees and property-transfer taxes, which are currently decided by the General Assembly on a case-by-case, county-by-county basis.
In “Local Control, in Rhetoric Only” by Chris Fitzsimon, the local-control options “raised the ire of two of the committee members, Rep. Julia Howard, a realtor, and Rep. Bruce Goforth, a contractor.” Fitzsimon, executive director of NCPW, notes that both legislators “preach local control,” but that the taxes being considered “are opposed by the homebuilders and realtors, two powerful special interests in Raleigh.”
– Nelda Holder, news and opinion editor
