The Truth About Lee County Tax Rates

There's a heated debate raging this election season about whether Lee County citizens are paying higher taxes than their counterparts in surrounding counties. So, let’s not engage in pointless opinions. Instead, let’s quote facts published by the Department of Commerce and the John Locke Foundation. For the record, these are validated data, not the local ‘spin’ we sometimes hear in election rhetoric.

To make things relevant, we will look just at Lee and the three counties immediately surrounding us - Chatham, Harnett and Moore - which compete with Lee County directly for new businesses, jobs and real property development.

First the simplest statistical measure we have is the property tax rate. Lee County charges .75 a hundred dollars for property tax. Harnett County charges .725 a hundred (3% less than Lee). Chatham charges .6022 a hundred (a full 20% less). Moore County charges .465 a hundred (a whopping 38% less than what Lee County charges). This is a stark contrast in the simplest statistic that impacts economic development. All other factors being equal, no business would come to Lee County if it could instead find what it needed in any of the other three counties.

Now, these rates are just a county by county comparison. If I were to examine the combined property tax rates, including municipal taxes, these numbers get even worse across our 4-county area. Bottom line- our property tax rates are the highest in central North Carolina. No amount of spin will change that fact.

Now, economic development experts like to argue we should examine the property tax rate as it burdens our citizens. That seems fair since we have different kinds of jobs and differing levels of per capita income in each of the four counties. We also have different family demographics in each. So, let’s look at that data as independently compiled and published statewide by the John Locke Foundation.

In the category of combined property tax burden as a percentage of income, Lee County ranks 18th highest in the state with a 2.88% burden. Moore County ranks 44th in the state with a 2.35% burden. Chatham County falls all the way to 67th with a 2.1% burden. And Harnett County sits at 80th in the state with a 1.97% burden. Bottom line—none of the other three counties are within a half a percent of Lee County in their tax burden as a function of income on our citizens.  Update: for the full Report go to

http://www.johnlocke.org/research/show/policy%20reports/209

I would also like to point out this data does not factor in current unemployment data. Our much higher unemployment rate places an even greater aggregate burden on families who pay property taxes.

So, the next time some tax-happy liberal comes to you and tries to convince you we need to keep our tax rate the same (or raise it), just quote from the factual data above. These numbers can’t be disputed. The state accepts them as being accurate, useful measures. The facts are loud and clear about Lee County’s property tax rate- it is too high for us to effectively compete for economic development opportunities and it is burdening our lower income taxpayers. The Lee County property tax rate needs to come down.

My First Commercial

The link below will take you to my first of several cable TV commercials I have been running.  Always interested in hearing your feedback.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1399519781833

Reconciling Conflicts of Interest in Local Government

We’ve had some slow news days of late. Twice in the past two weeks one of the top stories in The Herald showcased developments in the District 4 race for Lee County Commissioner. As most everyone now knows, my former opponent in this race, Kenny Cole, has taken a job as the Town Manager in Coats, NC and subsequently withdrew his name from contention in our commissioner race. While this development would appear to be good news for me, politically, it introduces uncertainty into the campaign as well.

Kenny Cole made the right choice in withdrawing from the Lee County Commissioner race. Lee and Harnett Counties compete for new business developments. If Kenny had been elected as a Lee County Commissioner and retained his full time job as Coats Town Manager, he would have faced the inevitable problem of handling confidential economic development information that would advantage one entity over the other. There’s no way he could avoid this conflict of interest and do justice to the citizens of both counties. So, his early withdrawal from the race was both ethical and practical. Kudos to Kenny.

I have always advocated that politicians must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in executing their duties. This concept was instilled in me at West Point and has stayed with me continuously the past 30 years. As commissioner of Lee County, I would not knowingly work for or accept any form of compensation from an entity that competed with the county or that did contract work for the county. Either of these situations could introduce the problem of an apparent conflict of interest. That appearance, in turn, would diminish public confidence in local government, which serves no useful purpose.

It’s the same sort of problem that Representative Jimmy Love, Sr. has in serving two masters who have competitive interests. He is compensated by the citizens of House District 51 to be our elected representative in Raleigh, while simultaneously serving as a contracted legal counsel to the Board of Education in Lee County. As a well-educated and trained lawyer, Mr. Love is intimately familiar with the statutes and regulations governing conflict of interest. I’m sure he knows just how to walk that tightrope while avoiding legal complications. But he cannot avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest in the minds of many across the community he represents. As our representative, he advocates for funds to support Lee County Schools, to which his law firm is a contractor. This is viewed by some as him inappropriately singing for his supper.

If one ascribes credence to the latest Civitas poll conducted in Lee County, Mr. Love’s apparent conflict of interest may only extend to the end of the year. It looks as if Mike Stone’s campaign for the District 51 seat is gaining momentum and Mr. Love may be back to focusing his energies exclusively on his law practice come January. If that’s the will of the citizens in Lee County, I offer them kudos as well.

Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)- Part 1

BRAC Regional Task Force Website

The past few days have witnessed a rapid-fire sequence of important activity related to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and its potential impact on Lee County.  On Thursday afternoon, the Lee County Board of Commissioners (BOC) unexpectedly took up the discussion of BRAC Marketing during its budget deliberation.  Our BOC debated the merits of sustaining involvement of BRAC marketing along with the other 10 tier one counties and seemed tready to terminate the three-year marketing commitment without public comment and without even having the marketing plan in front of them for review.  It was a classic case of the "blind leading the blind."  Fortunately, no vote was taken and discussions were tabled for continuance at the following (June 7) regular meeting of the BOC.

The next day, a number of Lee County local merchants, realtors, schools and agencies hosted a BRAC regional fair at the Atlanta Airport's Marriott Hotel.  Commendations are in order for the Sanford Herald's coverage of the Atlanta event, where Lee and Moore Counties conducted the joint regional fair  See this link for Editor Billy Liggett's coverage: Sanford Herald's Coverage of the BRAC Regional Fair . 

The event was  reasonably well attended despite its limited publicity among the soldiers and civilians at Forces Command (FORSCOM) and U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC), the two commands moving thousands into our region beginning late this year.  All totaled, more than 100 soldiers and Department of the Army civilians came to visit our booths at the Marriott.  Most of them expressed distinct interest in relocating to Lee County.  It's encouraging to witness this level of interest in our small county, knowing fewer than 10% of the soldiers and civilians from the relocating commands received advanced notice about the event.  Apparently, there was no official support or promotion of this event allowed at Fort McPherson, GA, where the commands are located.  So, those that attended found out through the 'grapevine' of local papers and internet resources.  (Hopefully, we can find a way of securing official notice and support for future such events.)

I spoke to a number of the officers and civilians who came to our event and shared with them the  rationale I used in choosing Sanford and Lee County over other possible places to live when my family moved here from Ft Lewis, WA in 1999.  It was reassuring to hear many of them share the same thought process.  These professional families-- many of them dual income --are looking for a strategically smart, affordable, and safe location to transplant their families to.  Most want a place they can fancy as a permanent home.  Sanford provides all of that, and more.  All of us in attendance at the Atlanta event took pride in sharing the many advantages of Lee County over the surrounding locales; and by all accounts, our message resonated.

I was particularly encouraged with the preparation that several of our local realtors and mortgage lenders had made and with the manner in which they promoted Lee County in Atlanta.  Kudos to the Carolina Trace team that did a superb job of presenting its many amenities.  As the first significant feature most prospective new residents notice as they travel north into Lee County along Highway 87, the importance of Trace as a Lee County attraction cannot be over-stated!

After returning from Atlanta, I was compelled to contact Mr. John Harbison, Director of the BRAC Regional Task Force (RTF), and I shared with him my concerns with Lee County possibly pulling out of the joint marketing effort.  Today, June 7, Mr Harbison sent me a lengthy email reminding me of the many ongoing benefits we receive from BRAC marketing, as well as the likely future pay-out for being a part of the tier-one counties.  He had no indication Lee County was considering a withdrawl (which was further evidence our BOC had not carefully contemplated or coordinated such a change).      

It appears the message got through to the BOC before this afternoon's budget deliberations.  The Board elected not to vote on making BRAC Marketing a 'billpayer' for other budget items.  Let's all hope and pray the BOC will have the good sense to stay the course as important BRAC opportunities develop in the coming months.  I promise my blog followers to be vigilant in ensuring we continue to promote Lee County to prospective businesses and residents, and to help identify and advertise job opportunities for Lee County citizens at Ft Bragg as they emerge in the coming months.

2010-2011 Budget Cycle

It’s budget time again—for both the City of Sanford and for Lee County. The County and City Managers have presented their budgets and deliberations are underway. Tonight the Sanford City Council pondered Hal Hegwer’s revised budget submission (http://www.sanfordnc.net/Proposed%20Budget%2010-11.PDF) along with a motion and discussion from Council regarding a possible tax rate reduction and the possible set-aside of $75,000 in new funding for non-profits. Councilman Sam Gaskins had previously conceived of the notion to reduce municipal property taxes by a penny per hundred, a novel and commendable gesture that would provide movement in the right direction from our high existing tax rate. Tonight, Councilman Mike Stone made the motion to get the process rolling for a tax rate reduction and to alert the community of an unexpected $75K windfall of funds emanating from the ABC accounts. Mr. Stone motioned these funds be set aside as a means of support for the non-profits of the community, as has been recently requested.  There seemed to be a good deal of support among council members for this initiative. 

Not everyone agrees with the City getting involved in funding non-profits with precious tax resources. This debate is as hotly contested as the debate about whether to use tax revenues to fund incentives and grants for new and existing corporate development in the county.  It should be noted the City of Sanford has been funding non-profits for over a decade. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been used in the past to fund the Temple Theater, Lee County Industries, and the Railroad House Museum, all non-profits. The Boys and Girls Club -- a magnificent local charity – recently petitioned the Council for funding assistance, which caused a good bit of discussion and debate, culminating in tonight’s marathon Council Meeting. Many of the local non-profits stood tonight, in public comment, to share the purpose and scope of their organizations and to outline the value they add to the local community. As the Council noted, all are worthy contributors to the quality of life in Sanford.

In the end, Mike Stone’s motion to reduce taxes and to set aside some funds for non-profits was tabled for further analysis and impact. But it was still refreshing to see just how passionate citizens are about our non-profit agencies. I anticipate the Council will find a way to develop a suitable funding policy, then to find a way of brokering those funds equitably through the United Way or other such agency. I was proud to see Council embrace the public comments and I pray Mr. Stone’s motion for the tax rate reduction and the funding set-aside for non-profits will be passed this month.

For the record:  I advocated tonight for the Bread of Life Ministries (BOLM) and the Sanford Outreach Mission (OM), both of which my family and church support with prayer, volunteer time, and money.     In a future blog column I will highlight the roles of these and other non-profits in elevating the quality of life here, and in helping those less fortunate persevere these tough economic conditions.

Thank You to the Many Faithful Supporters

As I indicated in my first post to this blog site, the purpose of the "Transforming Lee County" Blog is to stimulate ideas and discussion about how to positively change Lee County, NC.  My campaign for County Commissioner is secondary to that aim. 


Having said that, I wish to send my heart-felt appreciation and best wishes to all those who prayed for this campaign, talked up my candidacy, made phone calls to get citizens out to vote, went door-to-door campaigning for me, or simply provided words of encouragement.   I can't thank you enough for your great support over the past three months.


Campaigns are long and arduous.  I thank God for supporters who know how to persevere.  With the May 4th Primary behind us, it's on to the November 2nd General Election.  Preparations are already underway to organize a solid campaign.  I pray our faithful campaign workers will be ready for an energetic push through this summer and fall so we can muster a record turnout of values voters ready for change we all can believe in (change that doesn't come at the expense of our hard working taxpayers).


May God richly bless you all!


Jim Womack

This is a Fine Mess We’ve Gotten Ourselves Into!

This past week I discovered some disturbing economic data as I was reviewing published information from the North Carolina Employment Security Commission (ESC). I think it appropriate to share some of that data here, and then comment on the implications.

First, I’ll bet few in Lee County are aware that, in a typical year, the Lee County economy generates nearly a BILLION dollars in wages among the roughly 25,000 or so local employees. That seems like a pretty hefty number for a County of this geographical size, and it’s a testament to our productivity, in a normal year. Unfortunately, the local economy in 2008 dropped to about $971M in total wages, down $15M from our record 2007 numbers.

Data from the final calendar quarter for 2009 still hasn’t been released, but it looks as if the tallies for the full year will reflect a whopping $120M drop in total wages. That’s a 12.4% decrease, which is very difficult to absorb, especially in a single calendar year. Interestingly, government wages still comprise nearly 12% of our total wages, which also seems high given we are not a state or federal employment hub of any kind.

From the same ESC reports, I see the County lost a projected 2500 jobs in 2009, nearly 10% of the total labor force here. That’s just awful.

The above numbers bear out statistically what we already knew intuitively from the poverty and crime indicators all across Lee County. The Bread of Life Ministries (BOLM) and Christian United Outreach Center (CUOC) food pantry headcounts are significantly elevated over 2007 and 2008. Daily lunch headcounts at the Breadbasket are similarly running higher. This winter we had to open a new emergency facility to house homeless overflow from the Sanford Outreach Mission, which is the only such shelter in a 25-mile radius. Despite the (2008) crime statistics being recently reported, the citizens of this community can easily see the incidence of criminal activity - especially violent crime - has been higher since at least last August.

On one occasion this winter, we had a local family of 13 drive up to BOLM in the middle of the night, pleading for assistance because they had suddenly lost their home for non-payment of utilities. They were out of options and there was little that Social Services or the Sanford Housing Authority could do for them. It broke my heart to see a young mom and her three daughters, aged 1-3 years, all bundled up with nowhere to go but to a cold van. Her younger brother in this unusual family constellation, was a dialysis patient and also at significant health risk. Were it not for several Christian organizations in the local community — BOLM, First Baptist Church, and Lifeline Ministries, among others — this family would have been left exposed to very cold weather and would have been vulnerable to street thugs wherever they might have parked. Thank God for several of our local Christian organizations! Because of them, this family was able to get back on their feet for at least the near term.

As I reflect on the many 2009-2010 scenarios we’ve encountered, similar to the one above, it occurs to me we have to do something different here in Lee County. Now, I’m not advocating more government spending. In fact, I think I can make the case that it was inappropriate government spending that got us into this mess in the first place. (That will be the topic of future blogs.) What’s not needed is another government program or regulation. Nor do we need a government bureaucrat wasting more of our taxpayers’ hard earned dollars by throwing money at generational poverty. What’s needed is for our community – particularly our local private enterprises and faith-based organizations - to unite in addressing our growing poverty, homelessness, food shortages, and clothing needs. We need to provide temporary, immediate relief, then we need to help educate and train these families to become self-sufficient.

There are hints of that starting to happen around Sanford, and our City and County governments need to promote and encourage them wherever they occur.

I want to know more about how the citizens of Lee County feel about this topic. What other unified efforts are already in the works to help address our growing socio-economic troubles? What more needs to be done to organize, resource, and direct services across the County so we are caring for our brothers and sisters as Christ advocated in Matthew 25: 37-46? I look forward to your responses.

Welcome to My Campaign Blog

Greetings! I welcome your ideas and suggestions for improving the quality of life in Lee County, NC. As the next District IV County Commissioner, I look forward to receiving and discussing your ideas for making Lee County more competitive for economic expansion, for growing jobs, and for restoring fiscal and social conservatism in the Lee County Board of Commissioners. I encourage you to sound off and I will eagerly publish those comments that merit public consideration. Please note though-- I am a devout Christian and I will not welcome or publish demeaning political commentary or rhetoric at this blogspot. Finally, please take time out to visit my Campaign website and provide your feedback. Simply copy this URL and paste it into your browser address bar: http://www.womack4commish.com

Blessings to all!