I voted in Orange County today. Mostly showed up to vote against the increase in the County Sales tax.

I’ve seen hundreds of yard signs urging me to “vote for schools and jobs” around the area. And what do you know. The “Campaign for Schools and Jobs” yard signs are funded by, The Orange County Government. So of course they are going to be for anything that increases their revenue. But are any actual citizens who are NOT county government employees actually in favor of the increase? Not that I can tell.

Problem is, despite all their promises to dedicate 50% of the funds to schools by setting up special revenue accounts etc. I don’t believe it. This is the oldest trick in the book that governments like to play.

They promise to dedicate the additional revenue to a specific purpose, set up all the special accounting etc. And it lasts for maybe one year or two. Then they reduce the funding for the special project from the general fund so that the spending from the general fund plus the special fund actually goes down.

Or they can simply renege on their promises. Case in point The North Carolina Education Lottery which was promised to us to be an additional revenue fund dedicated just for funding schools. But now that revenue fund has been raided by the state for a bunch of different uses. Thanks Bev Perdue! We really appreciate that. Not. Trust me, I’ll be remembering this next time someone asks me to vote to raise taxes “for schools.” Trust me. I’ll be remembering this next time Bev Perdue comes up for reelection.

So forgive me if I don’t trust the word of the Orange County Board of Commissioners’ promises. Like I say, this is the oldest con game in the book for state and local governments.

And don’t even get me started about the other 50% of the funds which are supposed to be devoted to “economic development”. Yeah. Right.