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
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.
