Next big thing

Residents all over the Triangle are feeling the pinch from high gas and food prices. Now their taxes could be increasing

A Durham woman moved from her 3,000-square-foot home a couple of years ago into a more modest house, and figured to save money on her property taxes. Now she expects her tax bill isn't going to change much. In Raleigh, another woman on a fixed income saw her house in North Raleigh reassessed at $100,000 more than the previous tax value. She's going into her savings.

These stories are not uncommon, even while town and city managers in this area are asking for sizable property tax increases. Raleigh's Russell Allen seeks 15 percent. Durham's Patrick Baker wants 11 percent. In Chapel Hill, the proposal is for 11 percent.

It's not that these managers are spendthrifts. Truth is, just as taxpayers are getting slammed by horrific increases in gas prices, so are towns and cities. Running a sizable community and providing services for its residents is costing more all the time. And sales tax revenues, one source of money, are down.

In addition to maintaining services, there are bonds to pay off. Debt service must be paid, and half of Raleigh's proposed increase of 5 cents per $100 in valuation would go toward that, for building projects and parks bonds. It's also true that although 15 percent sounds like a lot, in dollar terms it means another $125 a year on a $250,000 home. Not small potatoes, maybe, but typically not a huge shock to the bank account, either.

That said, city and county and town officials in the area need to keep some other things in mind besides their own government's bottom lines: first, people are facing those increased personal expenses of their own, from what it costs them to drive to work to their weekly family grocery tab; second, there are older folks on fixed incomes who are living so close to the margins that $50 or $100 might really hurt; third, paying bond debt, and maintaining services, are expenses with which no one can argue, but big new projects need to get a once-over, twice-over and maybe three-times-over look.

Raleigh, for example, has a $226 million public safety center and over $200 million in other construction projects related to operations in the works. Chapel Hill also has big plans.

The projects may be needed, in fact they likely are needed, but managers and councils ought to see if there are ways to alleviate some of the cities' and towns' expenses until the overall economic news is better for everyone. At least looking for ways to economize -- keeping in mind the financial predicaments involving so many citizens -- would be worthwhile. Not that anyone should expect to find much fat in these municipal budgets, or tax rates that have been excessive.

That said, budgeting, and setting tax rates, shouldn't be just a numbers game. The process also needs to account for the impact on citizens, especially those with fixed incomes who may have lived in their homes for many years and now find the taxes onerous. Once numbers are crunched, let's add one more line to the equation -- the human line.