So the headline reads: “City Passes New Budget with No Property Tax Increase!” Sounds great, right? But you gotta dig a little deeper, people. They’re still getting more money from you somehow. It’s just that nobody likes people who increase taxes. So let’s change the name.
The budget passed during last night’s City Council meeting, which everybody knew it would. And what sounds great is that it did not include a property tax increase for homeowners. But what it does increase is a water and sewer fee for homeowners.
Of course, not every property owner in Charlotte has water and sewer service on every piece of land. But a lot do. When you do the math, the flat fee winds up being more than the average property tax increase, which is usually just a few hundredths of a percent from year to year: a couple of bucks difference, on average.
And so, since most property owners will still have to pay more, our Man on the Edge, Robert Wilder, asks if there’s really any difference between taxes and user fees…
