Two years after it was voted down, the quarter-of-a-cent sales tax referendum will be back on the Macon County ballot this November.
The Macon County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to put the tax hike up for a county-wide vote during its March 12 meeting.
Board attorney Eric Ridenour said the special-advisory referendum is similar to the 2022 one. In that vote, 54.85% of Macon County voters (8,295) went against the quarter-of-a-cent increase, defeating the referendum by 1,466 votes.
“Chairman, as I told you earlier today, if there is such a thing as a fair tax, it’s sales tax,” Commissioner John Shearl said. “I also said if the will of the people is to increase that sales tax by quarter of a cent, by all means. The people of Macon County have the option to approve it or not approve it.”
The current sales tax rate in Macon County is 6.75%, comprised of the mandatory 4.75% state sales tax rate plus a 2% local sales tax. If approved, the Macon County sales tax would then be 7%, with 2.25% of that being local taxes that come back to the county.
“I say leave it in the hands of the people,” Commissioner Danny Antoine said. “We don’t have much here in Macon County and our citizens are consistently going to surrounding counties and they’re paying into everybody else’s sales tax. Doesn’t make sense for us to not have people coming through here and not paying into our taxes as well. So I’m for it.”
According to the North Carolina Department of Revenue, 51 of the state’s 100 counties have a 6.75% sales tax rate, while 45 have a 7% sales tax rate. Two are at 7.25%, and the remaining two are at 7.5%, although those four include 0.5% for transit services.
In Western North Carolina, Cherokee, Graham, Clay, Swain, Jackson, Buncombe and Madison counties have a 7% sales tax. Macon, Transylvania and Henderson counties sit at 6.75%.
At February’s budget kickoff meeting, Finance Director Lori Carpenter said a quarter-of-a-cent sales tax would translate to $2.3 million more in sales tax gross per year. That could offset the property tax rate by two cents, Carpenter said. The current property tax rate is 27 cents per $100 valuation, the lowest county-wide property tax rate in the state.
The question on the 2024 General Election ballot will read “Local sales and use tax at the rate of one-quarter percent (0.25%) in addition to all other state and local sales and use taxes,” followed by options of “for” and “against.” Election Day 2024 is Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.
Three people spoke during public comment in favor of the referendum. Mary Ann Ingram held up a penny and said the sales tax would just be one-quarter of that. Betsy Baste said she would politick for the tax increase so “people who travel through here also put money in Macon County.”
“Please, please, please let’s get it through this time,” Scott Baste said in his brief public comment in favor of the quarter-of-a-cent sales tax.