CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted to put a proposal to raise the county sales by quarter-cent on the November ballot.
The voters will get the final say.
The sales tax hike is projected to generate some $50 million. The Arts and Science Council would get nearly half of that, about 49%.
Parks and greenway projects would get 30%, and 16% would be earmarked for teacher pay increases. The remaining 5% would be distributed to cities and towns.
The vote was 7 yes votes and 2 no votes for its place on the ballot. There was an attempt to add an amendment changing the allocation of the funds from what was on the agenda, but that failed and the proposed allocation approved. The vote for that allocation was 8 yes votes with 1 no vote.
NBC Charlotte’s Rad Berky talked with shoppers about the projected hike in the sales tax.
One woman, Beth Palmer, said the arts should be supported because they are important to the community.
“Brings diversity and brings in other people from other areas into the city,” she said.
But others like John Shortsleeve said this comes on top of a recent property tax hike.
“Again, I’m not a friend of tax hikes. All those things are worthy of funding, but I think we need to find other areas of the budget to cut,” Shortsleeve said.