Recently, I attended a Wake County Board of Commissioners’ meeting in which the representatives voted on adding a referendum to the November ballot so Wake County residents could have a say whether or not to implement a higher sales tax that would go toward teacher salaries.
Several people from the general public spoke during one portion of the meeting, urging the importance of approving this referendum to better support our teachers. One speaker even reminded the board that with elections coming up, we’ll be deciding whether or not the commissioners get to keep their positions and this decision could definitely sway peoples’ votes for them.
The Republican 4–2 majority ultimately shot down the referendum.
The decision whether to raise the sales tax should have been left up to Wake County residents. But now, it’s not even a possibility.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill allowing counties to hold special elections, such as on the referendum, during even years. This means the next chance to try to approve a referendum like this again will not be available until 2016.
The commissioners didn’t even let the board’s longest-serving Democratic member, Betty Lou Ward, vote on the topic. She’s been in the hospital, so the County Attorney said he thought she should be allowed to vote regardless. However, more members disagreed, leaving her unable to vote.
Commissioner Paul Coble, who opposed the tax, defended his position by claiming it wasn’t fair that people accuse his decision as one purely of partisan politics.
That’s strange considering he also didn’t think Ward should be allowed to vote, probably because she definitely supported the referendum. That sounds extremely partisan and unfair to me.
Although there’s a formal structure these meetings follow, the chairperson did not let Caroline Sullivan, a Democrat on the board, speak despite the fact she had a comment to make before the voting started. Coble had previously questioned a few comments she made, so she wanted to answer and to talk about her position, but was denied. I felt like the conversation wasn’t over yet, and she should have been allowed to make another comment on the topic.
The meeting left me wanting to ask our Board of Commissioners, “Why would you not want to set an example for other counties? Why not be an innovative county and really try to help teachers?”
Because Wake County residents would have been paying the tax, they should’ve been the ones to decide whether or not to pass it.
“Letting urban counties get out ahead of the other 97 counties is bad for North Carolina,” Commissioner Joe Bryan said.
Though, that statement lacks much evidence. On the contrary, it seems as though passing the referendum would be good for other counties, as they might follow the lead or find new ways to help teachers get the pay they deserve.
Though I will not get an opportunity to vote on the referendum, I will be voting to replace members of the County Commission with people who are actually willing to start making changes in Wake County for teachers and moving Wake County in a new direction.
