Chuck Watts, co-chairman of the "A Taste for Durham's Future" committee promoting Durham County's proposed 1 percent sales tax on prepared food, said he is "disappointed and, frankly, not surprised" that the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People came out against the measure.
"I'm disappointed, mainly because we believe the prepared-food tax is good for Durham and good for black people," he said.
Much of the tax's revenue would directly benefit black-related institutions, he said.
According to a list of projects to receive funding through the tax's revenue, expansion of the Hayti Heritage Center would receive $14 million and money would also go to historic interpretation on Parrish Street, once home to several large black-owned financial firms.
The Durham Committee, historically a powerful influence in city politics, announced its overwhelming opposition to the tax Saturday, along with its other endorsements for the Nov. 4 general election.
"I am personally disappointed in the Durham Committee," said Watts.
Watts is a direct descendant of John Merrick and Aaron Moore, two founders of the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance, a firm that helped Durham gain the appellation "capital of the black middle class" in the 1920s.
