3. High Point
The North Carolina General Assembly — which is controlled by the GOP, in case you hadn’t noticed — wants to change the way sales-tax monies are distributed back to our municipalities. Currently the payments are based on where the money was spent. The new formula working its way through the GA will give less money to cities in favor of redistributing wealth to the state’s rural counties. It should hurt High Point the least — they collected about $16.9 million from the state in local government sales and use tax for the period running from July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014.
2. Winston-Salem
Forsyth County took in about $57.2 million from the state during that same period, with almost half of it, $25.4 million, earmarked for Winston-Salem. For comparison’s sake, consider that Tobaccoville, population 2,500, got about $23,000 for that same period. Under the new formula, those numbers should be closer together.
1. Greensboro
The Gate City has the most to lose here. Of the $82 million that Guilford County gets back in sales and use taxes, Greensboro was the recipient of $35.1 million — not as large a percentage of the county total that Winston-Salem took in, but more than $10 million more that the Camel City could count on. If the new wealth-distribution plan goes into effect, tiny Whitsett, a town that’s home to 600 people and took in almost $6,000 over the measured period, could see an exponential boost.
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