The defeat Tuesday of a 0.4 percent land transfer tax in Orange County is another example of the rich manipulating the public. The ad campaign (of over $200,000 from N.C. real estate interests) said there is a better way to pay for schools and parks. But what way? The ever-popular remedy of increasing property taxes (the only real home tax)? More sales tax? A quarter-cent sales tax is not enough to pay for what is needed, and sales tax revenue doesn't keep up with growth. But the ads don't say that.

Most real estate transfers are on commercial or raw land -- not homes. In most cases, a transfer tax on a private home is passed on to the buyer. So the tax is paid in a 15- or 30-year mortgage. Where's the pain? Or (gasp!) the homeowner asks the Realtor to take a lower fee to compensate. But the ads don't say that.

Realtors and developers keep profiting from growth, while we taxpayers pick up the bill. Too bad citizens believe everything they see on TV. And too bad citizens and government officials don't have the bucks to go on TV and say the things that the ads don't say.

Linda McCarley

Apex