Former District 4 Guilford County Commissioner Alan Branson, who served on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners from 2012 to 2020, announced he was running for the at-large Board of Commissioners seat earlier this year.
When the new candidate filing period finally reopened on Thursday, Feb. 24, Branson was unquestionably ready to enter the at large commissioner’s race.
The night before filing reopened, Branson was checking the opening time of the Guilford County Board of Elections so he could file to run first thing in the morning.
“The early bird gets the worm,” he said. “The community will have a common-sense small business-minded commissioner at-large candidate running in 2022.”
Branson said that people who watched him on the board for eight years know they’ll get a business advocate who will help mitigate what he calls the costly moves of Democratic Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston.
On the other side of the ballot is a known quantity as well: Current at-large Guilford County Commissioner Kay Cashion, who in the past has voted with Alston a lot more often than she’s voted with Branson.
Since Branson left the board after losing reelection, he’s seen county politics change dramatically. From 2012 until 2020, the Board of Commissioners was controlled by a majority of Republican commissioners – a group in which Branson played an integral part. During that eight-year run, the Republicans never raised property taxes and, in fact, lowered taxes slightly.
Since leaving the board, Branson has been critical from the sidelines of multiple actions of the current Democratically controlled board. He has railed against everything from moves to change gun laws in the county to a $2 million call center with a poorly defined purpose to what he calls the absurd on-again off-again masking policies the current Board of Commissioners has implemented with seemingly little rhyme or reason.
i live outside of Greensboro, but in Guilford County. i received my new property revaluation in the mail today. They reckon my house is worth a third more than it was 5 years ago. I’m not sure about that, but when the Republicans were in charge of the Board they reduced the property tax rate, so as to make the budget – and my tax bill – revenue neutral.
The current Chairman of the Guilford County Commissioners, a Democrat, has stated that he has no intention of reducing the Property Tax rate. So he is imposing a 33% tax increase on me because he claims my house is suddenly worth a bunch more. So what? My income has cratered over the last 3 years. I work in the Productive Sector (aka the Private Sector), so I am not insulated from economic reality like people who work in the Parasitic Sector (aka the Public sector). They get their money on the 30th of every month regardless of the economy, or their productivity for that month. I get my money depending on how many people buy my product. If I work harder, I get more sales. If I get sick and can’t work, my income becomes zero.
I want to thank Alan Branson for his prior consideration for us Productive Sector workers, and I hope he wins his election.
And please – PLEASE – do not vote for the slippery RINO called McClellan. He is a big government statist.
My mother’s taxes on her 52 year old mobile home (and little more than an acre) went from just over 50,000 last year to over 90,000 this year! Absolutely absurd.
Sorry…her property’s value went from 50T+ to 90T+….not her actual taxes.