Payroll tax plan gets cool reception in Durham (News and Observer)
DURHAM The notion of a payroll tax on people who work in Durham County but live elsewhere got a cool reception this morning from Durham County’s delegation to the state legislature.
“Why do you want to put that on us?” said state Rep. Mickey Michaux, the delegation’s senior member, when the proposition came up during the delegates’ pre-session meeting with the Durham County Board of Commissioners.
However, the legislators were warm to another idea for bringing more revenue into Durham County: sharing in the sales taxes collected at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Currently, those receipts all go to Wake County.
The state General Assembly convenes for its 2010 short session, dealing mostly with budget matters, May 12. Its “long session,” for business of all sorts, begins in January 2011.
“If things remain the same in the long session,” Michaux said, “we might be able to do it.” The qualifying “if” reflected the fact 2010 is an election year, and several of Durham’s General Assembly delegates face opposition for re-election.
As things are in the General Assembly, Michaux is Senior Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and Durham state Rep. Paul Leubke is Senior Chairman of the House Finance Committee.
“I’m writing the budget and Paul’s doing the financing,” Michaux said. “We got a bit of leverage.”
Durham County, the City of Durham and the City of Raleigh, along with Wake County, share the airport authority and pay toward airport operations each year. Durham also provides the airport utilities, and the issue of equity could win support for sharing tax receipts from legislators from other parts of the state, Michaux said – helping overcome anticipated opposition from Wake’s delegation.
“Develop the argument,” said state Sen. Bob Atwater.
The commuter tax, which County Commissioner Joe Bowser has advocated for years, has less likely prospects.
“We have probably 100,000 people who come here to work,” Bowser said. “Those people are getting some services
Mecklenburg County tried to get authority for such a tax some years ago, County Manager Mike Ruffin said, but the proposal went nowhere.
“I can imagine the uproar from small businesses,” said state Sen. Floyd McKissick. “I don’t see anybody saying they support it.” It would also be easily liable to fraud, since all a commuter would need to do to claim county residence is to open a post office box.
Michaux said the tax would probably be unconstitutional, applied to only a “certain class” of citizens.
“You take care of the constitutional problem and I’ll look at it,” he said.
Published Wed, Apr 28, 2010 02:44 PM
Modified Wed, Apr 28, 2010 02:48 PM
