As Wake County and Raleigh raise taxes, homeowners raise questions.

The budgets recently approved for Wake County and Raleigh had aspects that normally would get taxpayers’ attention: Both include a tax increase and raises for elected officials.

Yet neither budget brought an outcry.

Has the pandemic sapped the energy of tax protesters and those who reflexively object to officials raising their pay? Or are the county and city budgets so reasonable that even the pitchfork-and-torch folks are saying the spending plans are OK?

My guess is that it’s mostly the latter. Tax rates are going up, but not too much. In Wake, the owner of a $337,000 home, the average assessed value, will pay about $66 more per year in county property tax. In Raleigh, the owner of the same value home will pay about $68 more in city property tax.

So, not too bad. Most homeowners will pay slightly more in taxes on homes that are likely under assessed given the hot housing market of the past year.

Meanwhile, the annual salary for county commissioners will jump 50 percent from $25,288 to $37,856. Raleigh City Council members will get a big boost with the mayor’s pay rising to $36,511 from $25,972 and regular council members’ salaries rising to $29,848 from $18,933.

The pay hikes, though big as a percentage, still add up to modest pay for important and time-consuming work. Taxpayers appear to understand that.

Sig Hutchinson, chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said the Wake County tax rate remains in the lower third of tax rates in North Carolina despite Wake being the third-fastest growing county in the nation. “It’s a good deal,” he said.

In Raleigh, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the need to hire and retain city employees in a competitive job market meant the city had no option but to raise taxes to raise pay. City employees will get a 2 percent hike plus merit increases and more will be spent to pay police, where there are 165 vacancies. “This is about putting our employees first,” Baldwin said.

Looming behind the lack of protests over these budgets is a question that will become a problem for Wake commissioners and Raleigh council members: Why isn’t the growth in the county and city tax bases reducing taxes, or at least avoiding increases?

The question is being raised by the Wake County Taxpayers Association, a group that regularly opposes tax increases.

Edward Jones, the group’s treasurer, said, “There is no justifiable reason for the city and the county to raise the rates on people’s home when the base is going up so rapidly. It’s just absolutely asinine and unreasonable.”

That the taxpayers association is complaining about higher taxes is hardly new, but now a group supportive of public investment in the city – Livable Raleigh – is also questioning why homeowners are getting a bigger bill even as commercial development booms.

A recent blog post on the Livable Raleigh website: “Growth in Raleigh is up, up, up. So why aren’t city tax rates going down?”

The post said taxes have jumped in recent years and could go up more if voters approve a $275 million parks bond this fall. It said, “Growth is not only NOT holding our taxes down, but rather seems to be pushing them up. The faster we grow, the more taxes we pay? Something ain’t right.”

Growth, of course, does not pay for itself. It expands the tax base, but adds even higher costs in infrastructure and government services. But the questions being asked now are not about rising public expenses, but rather about how the tax burden is distributed.

Are real estate investors and developers paying a fair share, or is the burden falling disproportionately on homeowners?

As construction cranes tower over Raleigh and development transforms once rural corners of Wake County, the question of who pays what for growth is starting to resonate. More voters will bring it to the polls in November. Local elected officials will need to come up with a better answer than tax breaks for developers and tax hikes for homeowners.