One of the unwritten rules of the City Council bit the dust with the Tuesday, July 26 election.
The rule was, “Don’t raise taxes in an election year.” The belief among members of the City Council for decades was that if they voted for a tax increase in an election year it would hurt their chances of being reelected.
Back before 2017, when the Greensboro City Council served two-year terms, this gave the taxpayers a break every other year. Taxes might be raised in even years when there was no election, but not in odd years when the entire City Council was up for election.
But the current City Council broke that rule in a big way with the largest tax increase in Greensboro’s history just over a month before the City Council election. On Tuesday, June 21, the City Council voted for about a 30 percent tax increase and on Tuesday, July 26, all seven members of the City Council that voted for that tax increase were elected to serve four-year terms.
As it stands now, the only member of the nine-member City Council who did not win on July 26 was District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling, who was running for mayor against Mayor Nancy Vaughan.
Both Outling and Vaughan voted against the budget and the huge tax increase, but neither took decisive action to try and keep the tax increase from passing. It appeared to be much the same as when there is considerable neighborhood opposition to a rezoning request and the city councilmember representing that district votes no, but everyone knows that the rezoning will pass. The budget clearly had the votes to pass without the support of Vaughan and Outling.
In this case, At-large City Councilmembers Yvonne Johnson, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Hugh Holston, District 1 City Councilmember Sharon Hightower, District 2 City Councilmember Goldie Wells, District 4 City Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann and District 5 City Councilmember Tammi Thurm all voted for the tax increase and won their respective City Council races.
With no price to pay for raising taxes, it seems a safe bet that taxes will continue to increase.
It’s called masochism…the act of receiving pleasure from physical/mental abuse at the hands of one viewed as their master/mistress.
Again I am so glad to ha eleft GSO.
I hope the remaining Republcans who remain in Greensboro don’t complain about the rising cost of living in Greensoboro with declining servcices. They need to get off their backends and vote for sanity. However I don’t believe this will ever occur. The apathy is appalling
It is a shame.
Don’t blame me. I didn’t vote for these people increasing taxes (but I did vote). The results did confirm for me that after growing up here, moving back with my husband to raise our children here, and giving back to this city in both time and treasure, it’s time to start making a mid-term plan to leave. People here don’t care about their city, their community, or their neighbors anymore. Greensboro has taken over by a bunch of gullible blind woke sheep who will freeze and be hungry this winter while convincing themselves that is a good thing. Sad.
Bye price your house to sell and move to Randolph county free up some space for a black family to enjoy GSO.
This is how you know when your city and council have gone as left as they can go…I asked in a letter to the Rhino last week if we as taxpayers did not care enough for our city that we would continue with the same people who voted in the largest tax increase in our history (and possibly in the US). I then asked if we were not tired of the lack of support/respect for law enforcement…I asked if we were going to allow crimes to continue 24/7…or if we would get out and vote to make a difference…it is obvious that not enough of us did care and did NOT vote…may God bless us and our children for what we will endure going forward as there is NO stopping these liberals now folks…absolutely NO stopping them!!
The people that live in this city are insane. Or they just like to have their pockets picked by the ineffectual city council.
You get what you deserve Greensboro. High taxes, high crime, poor services- Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity
This city is so Doomed; it’s just a matter of time until the machine politics create a little Chicago.
Raleigh, Durham and Burlington (!) are booming, pretty safe and on nationwide lists as excellent places to live. Guess who’s missing?
Not Greensboro it was voted 22 out of the best ran cities in the nation, and guess where all the commerce is coming? You guessed it gso metro
GSO has official fell off the LEFT cliff. These folks have the distinction of the highest tax increase in the US and they are not thru, there is still money left in the revaluation so next year there will be another tax increase. Another 4 years of Woke politics and giveaways of tax payers money.
Just months away now from the City Council and County Commissioners voting themselves (totally UNdeserved) pay raises. Hope voters continue to enjoy this parade of madness.
It would seem to me that the people who voted in the election fell into mainly two groups: Groups that were not affected by the tax increase because of their personal circumstances and groups that could afford to pay the increased taxes. Groups not affected by the tax increase would be students, older people living in retirement communities that are classified as nonprofit so, therefore, pay no property taxes such as Wellspring, Abbotswood at Irving Park and Whitestone, and low-income voters.
I would posit that voters who voted for Chris Meadows are homeowners that will be onerously affected by higher property taxes.
Correct. Of course those “non-effected” WILL eventually be effected as they see their monthly dues and rents go up to levels they will suddenly bitch about. That lag effect puts a lot of people to sleep. And then they want to move. Duh
More people need to read the Rhino Times to better understand what is really happening in local government.
And the exodus begins.
Don’t let the door hit ya where……
Do we have proof the election was honest?
Do you have proof ir wasn’t?
I find it ironic that you used rezoning as an example . Justin Outling showed us, his constituents, consistently that he would always support the developers over “considerable neighborhood objections”. He did not represent his constituents. He, like Zach Matheny, think they can forget the people that elected them and then act as if they are the answer to Greensboro’s problems. A big smile and glad handing folks won’t magically erase neglecting the people that put you into that office. Keep this in mind this time Zack.
Apathy has a price, now GSO will pay for it for many years…….
I am so glad that I don’t live in Greensboro!!!!!! I have written a few times in this format about the usual things that happen when a group of Democrats are voted and are in the majority,get ready for more taxes because they are coming .
I can only guess that most of people in Greensboro only vote for Democrats!! I would suggest that they got exactly what asked for in extra taxes.
I will point you to the Republicans who ran the commissioners board from 2012 to 2020,there were no tax increases and all groups in the county got funds to get by.
And then the county turned themselves inside out and voted in Democrats.This tickled Skip in such a fashion that he promoted and was active in recommending and promoting the school bond of 1.7 billion dollars .They had $300 million for more than a year.What did they do with the money,they only refinished the central office.I know for a fact that there are schools that need a/c work!!!! But the problem is they only have a couple people on maintenance staff that is certified.I would think that this much money they could go out and get outside people to repair.
Then they have delayed using this money so that whatever they have scheduled to repair later it will cost $450 million.So we are loosing money by sitting on it. This seems to be the way the schools sit on money .It’s evident that the financial people at the school board are totally lost ,including the Superintendent.
Sadly, I think you have a bunch of people who rent that voted for this. They think that they don’t own property, so who cares if property taxes go up? Well, guys and girls, when your rent skyrockets, maybe you will realize your error. The owner of commercial property, whether it’s a big business or just a landlord renting an extra house, is going to pass their additional costs on to you with higher rent.
Much like people who say to tax the rich or tax the big businesses think that will stick it to them! No it won’t. You aren’t doing anything but sticking it to the customer because the business will pass those expenses down every chance they get.
Dummies.
You know it is funny in a way. The east GSO folks overwhelmingly voted back in folks that in their mind are advocates for them but most of these council people have been on the council for years and thus far have done little or nothing for East Greensboro. They have however not supported the police and the crime rate has increased. They have increased taxes to folks that can least afford them. They talk about housing but shoot down most requests for rezoning or delay them until it is not feasible to build. They place a 50 million bond on the ballot for a center so they can say… look what I did for you! The Simpkins PAC is not doing these folks any favors, there selections are based on who knows who or who advocates the ICRM, not who would be the best advocates for ALL citizens! The board is not nonpartisan as some say but is a machine that waste massive amounts of tax payer money. A council with both Democrats and Republican would be good for the taxes payers, the way it is now there are no checks and balances