A local-option sales tax to pay for transit improvements? Not this year, says Johnston County’s state senator.
Sen. David Rouzer, a first-term Republican, lives near McGee’s Crossroads in Johnston and also represents part of Wayne County. He says he’ll vote no today on House Bill 148, which would authorize local voters to decide whether to tax themselves for better bus and rail transit service.
“Not right now,” Rouzer said this morning. “Not with the economic recession that we have and the taxes that are already going to be put in place with this new budget. I just can’t vote for it right now. This idea of adding tax after tax … I just think it’s got to come to an end. We’re killing the taxpayer.”
The measure would not increase taxes directly. It would authorize county commissioners and local voters, in a referendum, to enact a local sales tax hike of one-half cent per dollar in five urban counties – Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford, Forsyth – and a quarter-cent hike in Johnston and other rural counties. ...
