If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.
Guilford County voters had been saying no to a quarter-cent sales tax hike since 2008. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, they finally said yes.
And it wasn’t even close.
With all precincts reporting, the unofficial tally was 129,732 in favor and 76,669 against. That’s 63 percent to 37 percent, a margin of 53,063 votes. Just two years ago, nearly 60 percent voted against the same quarter-cent increase. This time, support rose by nearly 23 percentage points.
“The eighth time was a charm,” Guilford County Board of Commissioners Chairman Skip Alston joked Tuesday night.
Alston said the county had finally answered a question voters had been asking for years. Where, exactly, would the money go?
“The reason it passed this time is that we were able to put the language on the ballot telling people what the money would be used for,” he told the Rhino Times after the results were in.
Alston said he expects the tax to bring in north of $30 million a year. At $30 million, the split written into state law would send $21 million to classroom teacher salary supplements, $5.4 million to fire protection equipment and services, $2.4 million to capital improvements at Guilford Technical Community College and $1.2 million to qualifying towns. The county identified those towns as Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Stokesdale, Summerfield and Whitsett.
Once the county levies the tax, the combined general sales tax rate in Guilford County will go from 6.75 percent to 7 percent. On a $100 purchase subject to the general rate, that’s an extra 25 cents.
The county Board of Elections is scheduled to canvass the results on Friday, Nov. 13. The commissioners still have to vote to levy the tax.
The county came closest to getting a yes in 2010 – when the measure lost by just 3,824 votes. In 2020, roughly two-thirds voted against it.
The commissioners tried again in the May 2022 primary, when the measure got about 45 percent, and again in November 2024, when it slipped to 40 percent. Only 30 of the county’s 165 precincts backed it that year, despite a campaign that included billboards and other promotions.
This year, as the Rhino Times reported during early voting, there was far less campaigning out in the open. Alston said firefighters, teachers and others who stood to benefit were making the case even without the billboards and advertising that had marked earlier efforts.
“It was an underground campaign that did it,” he said.
Alston told the Rhino Times that one reason the measure kept losing was that voters weren’t sure the money would actually go to the schools. Commissioners could say how they intended to spend it, but a future board could make a different choice. This year, the General Assembly wrote the spending shares into state law and put those percentages in the ballot language. Alston previously told the Rhino Times he met with state Senate leader Phil Berger to help get that change, and that Republican Commissioner Pat Tillman helped arrange the meeting.
On Tuesday night, Alston also made the argument he’s been making since voters first rejected the tax in 2008. A Guilford County property tax bill goes to a property owner. A sales tax gets paid at the register, including by people who live outside the county and come here to work, shop or attend an event
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Skip Alston and the Democrats are elated ! They get to take another 30+ million Dollars from the people of Guilford County ! Every year. For ever.
When the Left puts a tax hike to the voters and the voters reject it seven times, none of those results matter. But when they finally get the higher tax okayed, suddenly that result is the one that counts.
The score is 7 to 1 Against, but suddenly “The People Have Spoken” and the issue will never be revisited. And that is how the Left operates.
Here’s the kicker : they call themselves Democrats.
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Given how the State has now made NC 50th in the nation on per student funding due to the income tax cuts, the money for schools has to come from somewhere. Still, I would not have voted for it if I still lived in GC but…..the people have spoken.
‘…due to the income tax cuts’? Really? Those tax cuts pale in comparison to the millions confiscated from property owners in Guilford County. No, it’s profligate spending, handing over tens of thousands to NGOs and non-profits, creating DEI postions, and more–have you looked at the Commissioners’ funding of those? And if anyone actually believes Alston’s description of how the increased sales tax revenue will be used, they seriously need mental help.
As you said “The People Have Spoken”. My question is what “People”. Wonder if anybody will run a comparison of votes cast vs. population.
Anyone who thinks that .25% will reduce the Commissioners quest for higher property tax is daydreaming!