Opposition to Fire District Flat Tax in Transylvania County, North Carolina

The Transylvania County Commissioners are considering moving from differentiated tax rates by fire district to a single, "flat tax" countywide. Such a change accomplishes what is, in effect, an "income redistribution" from well-managed and -funded fire districts to those districts which often ineffectively budget and manage their annual funding needs. Rather than dealing with that issue, certain of the Commissioners appear to want to skirt that issue and instead significantly increase the tax rate on residents who benefit from well-managed districts to cover the shortfalls in other areas of the County. For example, a flat tax system, if implemented, would increase one example district by over 50% at a minimum just to make up for the under-funded districts elsewhere.

A differentiated fire tax system is fair and increases accountability of the leaders in each district to better manage their financial resources.

We, the undersigned, oppose the adoption of a single “flat tax” rate for all fire districts in Transylvania County and strongly support leaving the current funding mechanism and tax rates unchanged.