Mayor Nancy Vaughan read a long statement about considering a prepared food tax at the June 20 City Council meeting directly after the City Council passed the budget.
The City Council passed a 4-cent tax increase for the 2023-2024 fiscal year at the June 20 meeting coming on top of the equivalent of an 8.69-cent tax increase in the current budget.
Vaughan has long been a proponent of a prepared food tax, and with Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston also making a statement in favor of a prepared food tax this week, it appears the full court press is on.
A restaurant or prepared food tax, according to Vaughan, is a way to get more money from people visiting Greensboro who don’t own property here and therefore don’t pay the sky high property taxes. Vaughan voted against the tax increase last year and again this year and has said that Greensboro needs more revenue streams to compete with other cities in the state that are not as dependent on property tax revenue.
Vaughan said, “I feel that not exploring all funding opportunities is irresponsible and puts our city at a competitive disadvantage and continues to be a drain on property tax revenue. There have been exploratory discussions about potential revenue sources, such as a prepared food tax, increased occupancy tax or a facility fee added to Coliseum arena tickets. There is currently a $4 fee added to Tanger tickets. It was part of the financing plan to reduce any reliance on property tax.”
Vaughan noted that “65 percent of the people who saw Hamilton over an 18-day period were from outside Guilford County. 80 percent of the people who saw Elton John were from outside Guilford County.” She listed a number of other events at the Coliseum and the Tanger that had similar percentages of people coming to their events.
Vaughan said, “The way we currently budget is that the city of Greensboro property taxpayers carry the burden of building and maintaining our facilities. Facilities that are used by people outside of Greensboro and Guilford County.”
Vaughan also noted that for Greensboro to implement a prepared food tax would take action by the North Carolina legislature and that no request had currently been made of the legislature.
Vaughan said, “There will be ample opportunity for input and discussion. It is our goal to have good information for our residents, our delegation and our legislature to decide if this is the right solution for our community or if we are going to continue to rely on our property taxpayers to carry that burden.”
Queen Nancy – That all sounds really good, but you left out the part about Greensboro’s poor folks also having to pay that 1% when they are already struggling to put food on the table.
Y’all in the county and city political positions are draining the people, so your swamp can increase. No more, people will now be leaving the city limits and this county due to the ongoing rising cost of living. All the efforts to get people downtown, to bring people to this city with jobs and events now a burden to exist here. Bye Bye Bye Bye Bye Bye
More taxes to waste. It will not benefit the citizens at all.
How many people from outside of Greensboro ate at Starbucks, McDonalds, Wendy’s, and such during those same times? Any revenue stream Queen Nancy can tap simply means more money City Council gets to spend, no matter where she gets it from.
The attendance statistics provided by Vaughn shows that the City of Greensboro residents are not the majority who are attending Tanger and the Coliseum. However, they are the ones who will be eating at restaurants. So, the prepared food tax will hurt the very people who live in the area. The Mayor and Alston want to support facilities that are frequented by outsiders by taxing the local folks. How dumb can these people get?
This council socialist strategy is to see how many ways we can tax the citizens of Greensboro. Although this tax would affect those that do not live in GSO, it would by majority impact those that are already paying some of the highest property taxes in NC and maybe the country. So just keep on taxing us every way you can!
Hey Your Majesty, let’s see a REAL comparison of REAL numbers as to who wold pay the REAL majority of this tax.
What’s next, an air tax?
Geez! Don’t give them any ideas!
Don’t remind her Alan, they already have a rain tax. Just ask anyone who gets a water bill
Mandate Mayor misled the folks here years ago claiming the Tanger boondoggle would be self-supporting with ticket fees, parking revenue, and hotel tax. It was a lie and now everyone (including those least able to afford it) will be paying for her largesse and unrestrained spending on nonprofits and other pet projects (fake trolley etc) while our infrastructure is crumbling and our police force is 100 officers short and contracting quickly.
How about ticket fees for the 1percenters that frequent the laughable lineups of overpriced Broadway retreads at the Performance Arts Palace.
From WUNC 2014 “Left To Raise
WUNC | By Jeff Tiberii
Published February 21, 2013 at 4:20 PM EST
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The Greensboro City Council has allocated $20 million in funding for a proposed downtown performing arts center after months of wavering over what role to play in the venue. On Tuesday council members voted 6-to-3 supporting the money. If the performing arts center is built, all of that money will be paid back through the hotel/motel tax (pending approval from Guilford County Commissioners) and through ticket surcharges and parking fees.”
FAST FORWARD a few years and Mandate Mayor wants a piece of every bite folks eat to help pay for support of her vanity monument.
You hit the nail on the head !
It’s like that “temporary” tax imposed on groceries in 1961 during a cash crunch in Raleigh. And we are STILL paying Sales Tax on groceries 62 years later, thanks to “Food Tax Terry” Sanford (D).
Nothing is quite as permanent as a “temporary” tax or fee.
Let’s be fair to the taxpayers. Put this on the ballot at the next election
Tax,tax,tax! That’s all this council knows! None of these members know where the fat is hidden in
this year’s budget or really cares.
Maybe we wouldn’t be having so much trouble raising taxes if we just legalized weed and taxed it like other states.
I am waiting for an honest study between the tax revenue generated by legalized marijuana sales and the costs that results from legalization. Costs like the governments’ administration of marijuana sales, rise in vehicle accidents (that we all pay for through higher insurance premiums), rise in healthcare costs (from the vehicle accidents) and lung disease, rise in child neglect from stoned parents, social ills created when children recognize self-medication is the answer to trying to solve personal problems because that is what the children saw in their own homes.
I am waiting on an honest study of the effects of marijuana smoking on mental acuity. If marijuana was a relaxing drug, wouldn’t being relaxed while performing a job negatively affect job performance? Most jobs require close and thoughtful attention, alertness. There is a reason employers drug test, and it is not just because marijuana is illegal. If marijuana were made legal, would this increase costs to employers because more people would be partaking?
I wonder if they ever consider trying to reduce their expenses. WOW, a novel thought!! Let’s start with the International Civil Rights Museum. What a money pit! But the Government budget never thinks about reducing their costs, or budget, only increasing. It is just a big socialist money scam against tax-paying citizens.
The flood of illegals from South of the Border has reached Greensboro. See how they vote.
Businesses like to hire them for sub-standard wages & benefits. Our Country is being sold out for profit; from our President down to the local landscaper. Everyone has to have a “diddle”.
Tax, tax, tax. Why not cut spending for a change? Then again, that’s not in the mindset of liberals on the council who only look for more ways to tax and give away money taken from citizens and tourists.
Welcome to Taxilvaughnia.