Commissioners Raise Taxes

Submitted to the McDowell News 08.08.23

by Susan Elliott

Dear Editor and People of McDowell County,

My McDowell County property taxes increased by a large chunk. Did yours? 

This is a heartless burden to place on the backs of the hard-working people, retirees, and military veterans who live in McDowell County. 

Will our children go to school without decent shoes, clothes, and supplies because parents are already stretched to the limit financially? They might!

Will our teachers get a pay raise or will the schools receive additional funding to help offset this large McDowell County tax increase? Of course not! Our NC elected officials had already decided to pull funding to the tune of $2 million directly from McDowell County Schools to pay for the rich to send their children to private schools. This was decided way before McDowell County Commissioners chose to increase our tax burden.

Businesses large and small are still slowly crawling out from under the onus of the Covid epidemic. Most likely there will never be a return to normal. Business owners are left to figure out how to navigate in a very different business climate. Guess what? Business property taxes increased, too!

What about emergency services workers... I could absolutely go on and on.

Let's remember this when we vote in 2024. Let's be fired up when we pay that tax bill. Fired up to put the heart back into local government.