Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / April 17, 1975, edition 1 / Page 2
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eidii t The Tax Revaluation What is revaluation and how will it affect my pocketbook? These are two questions that Char lotte-Mecklenburg property owners are asking this month, as tax reva luation notices go in the mail. . The first quesiton can be answered quickly. The second question can be answered this summer. . .Revaluation, or reappraisal, is the equalization of all real property values. North Carolina State law requires that all counties revalue real property on a periodic basis. The purpose of revaluation is to equalize the tax burden, based on current property values. . In Mecklenburg County, property values are changing rapidly and revaluation is needed more often than it is In counties where popula tion and property values are more static. The last countywide revalua tion was in 1971, and since that time many property values have changed drastically. For this reason the Board of County Commissioners voted to re value all Mecklenburg property this year. The Tax Supervisor’s staff has been working for some 18 months on revaluation. The revalu ation notices are now being pre pared and mailed. . If you own property in Mecklen burg, you should receive a notice before April 30 telling you the as sessed value of your property. The amount you pay will depend on the tax rate, which will be set In June, when both the City and the County adopt annual budgets. . Tax Supervisor Robert P. Alexan der, in an effort to help you under stand revaluation, uses the example of a home located within the City Limits of Charlotte and appraised at $20,000 by the Tax Supervisor’s Office in 1971. ..Under State law, this home was assessed at 60 percent of its ap praised or market value in 1971; so the assessed value was $12,000 and you paid property taxes on this amount. The City County tax rate in 1971 was $3.25 ($1.56 County and $1.69 City). The tax bill was $390. ..The State law changed in 1974, requiring the County to assess real property at 100 percent of its market value. So, the same $20,000 home was assessed at $20,000, and you paid property taxes on this amount. The City County tax rate in 1974 was $1.96 ($1.02 County and $.94 City), so the tax bill was $392. . .Assuming that this same house is revalued in 1975 at $30,000, your tax bill will be computed on this amount, after the tax rate is set. . .If you believe the new assessment on your property does not properly reflect its market value, you should come to the Tax Supervisor’s Office in the County Office Building, 720 East Fourth Street, and review your assessment record with an apprais er. Any errors found in the assess ment will be corrected. ..If you still believe the value of your property is less than that determined by the property ap praiser, you may appeal your value to the Board of Equalization and Review. The deadline for appealing to the Board is June 30, 1975. This Board has the authority to make adjustments in assessments. Addi tional appeals may be made to the North Carolina Property Tax Commission, then through the courts. Neither the City Council members nor the County Commis sioners have the authority to make adjustments in property assess ments. The Black Male Professionals Recent records show that the pro portion of black men employed in professional, technical and man agerail positions almost doubled in the 1970’s, from seven percent of all employed Negro men in 1959 to 13 percent in 1974. . .The figure is even more signifi cant when one considers that the same kind of job he would have been given if white? .. A wide range of industries was represented in the survey, and a broad range of business activities. But the largest group, close to 40 percept, was engaged in services at - - ■ - ——iVJ We Must Help Each Other Now More Than Ever Before REPORT FROM ashington . Welfare Reform-Questions By Congressman Jim Martin 9th District, North Carolina (EDITOR’S NOTE: Following is a transcript of Congressman Martin’s weekly radio program.) Q: Congressman Martin, recently you and other members of Congress introduced a bill to reform the wel fare system in the country. Specifi cally, the legislation is directed at the AFDC program, or Aid to Fami lies with Dependent Children. How much do you expect to save if the program is enacted by Congress? . MARTIN: Almost$2 billion. About one-half of that represents state and county money; the other half, fede ral. . .Q: Where do you expect to save? .. MARTIN: Well, from a whole host of areas where resources are pre sently being misused—some the re- ■ suit of fraud and other Illegal acti vity, but most the result of legal loopholes that permit persons to become eligible when they shouldn’t be eligible. ..Specifically, the bill would curb the practice of persons with high Incomes receiving welfare. It would eliminate a number of improper gal loophole. . ,Q: Hasn’t this been tried before? ..MARTIN: California was one of the first states to implement welfare reform. Roughly one-third of the recipients either were made ineligi ble or ban their payments reduced. There are 360,000 fewer people eligi ble for AFDC payments today than there were in 1971 prior to reform. Those who remained on welfare had their payments increased immedi ately after reform by 27 per-cent and by another 16 per-cent in succeeding .years, and there were enough sav ings. !eft..over to save taxpayers over $1 billion. The California approach has since been adapted to New York and West Virginia with similar suc cess. . .Q: What types of recipients would find their eligibility or grants affect ed? . .MARTIN: Only those persons who are misusing the system, taking advantage of an eligibility or grant loophole, should be affected. As I mentioned before, illegal aliens and strikers. In addition, persons who defraud the system, receiving bene fits under a multiplicity of family names or arrangements; persons who have non-needy Individuals liv ing with them, with no recognition now being made of the fact that those individuals should be support ing themselves; persons who do not exercise maximum effort to seek I ' ■■ TO BE EQUAL VERNON K. JORDAN J Food Stamp Logjam The food stamp program seems to be going th< way of the welfare program-a rational attempt to help people in need deteriorates into ar irrational attempt to make getting that help difficult. . .Just as in the welfare system, people trying t« exercise their rights to legally-mandated aid find themselves faced by suspicion, neglect and bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. The people who are supposed to be extending help find themselves instead, trying to limit people from getting that help. ..The basic reason for the problems the food stamp program has been having lies not with the large increases in recipients, but in the attitude of administrators that something must be wrong with anyone who applies for them, and that applicants are probably not eligible anyway, and are trying to “rip off” the government. .. It is just incredible how this nation can shovel hundreds of millions of dollars into openly corrupt dictatorships in southeast Asia, where local generals and officials literally steal us blind, but when our own jobless seek food stamps worth a few dollars a month, they’re viewed with suspicion and distaste. ..This is an attitude typical of popular ideas about human service programs. All those inflat ed stories about “welfare Chiselers” have finally caught up with many workers who spent their time complaining about the “cheats on welfare” and now, having lost their jobs in the Depression, find themselves in the same position of seeking al<1 . .The concept of blaming the victims has to be changed. People are poor and need aid not because of personal failings, but because the economic system doesn’t work for everyone in good times, and in times like these it doesn’t work at all for many people. It has been estimated that over a four-year period, over W million people are poor at one time or another. . .So lets get rid of that sickness of outlook that assumes they’re all trying to cheat the govern ment. Big operators take millions at a shot, but when an overpayment of a few dollars on a welfare check is discovered, the papers start screaming “theft.” ..A recent federal report indicates that some people getting food stamps are ineligible for them. Much is made of this, but what does it mean? Merely that someone applied for stamps, was granted the right to buy them and was later discovered to be making a few dollars over the eligibility limit. So what? That’s not cheating, it’s a bureaucratic error of no real significance, since that person’s actual economic condition is still bad, and the extra few dollars doesn’t r»kantfA that rnallfv
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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April 17, 1975, edition 1
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