To Harvey's point....creating amenities such as these will increase your property values as more people will consider such things when choosing where to live. So...it works both ways.
Well there will be winners and there will be losers as with any situation............ Money is tight for a lot of people..... I don't know anyone personally whose house is only worth 100,000. so a lot of people are going to be paying a lot more than 40.00 a year!!! I am for it,,,, just not for paying for it...... everybody wants our money :-D
Chances are your take home pay would still be more for 2018 than it was in 2017, even after paying $80-100 more across the year for the park. Trying not to make this political, but with the tax reform, you should still see a net gain, check it out for yourself here - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/upshot/tax-calculator.html
^^^ This. I hear all the time from people who don't want more growth, yet they're in relative new subdivisions themselves. As for a the parks & rec... what a waste. It is (way) past the the time for the county to have a unified rec strategy instead of dozens of piecemeal departments.
funny, I'm all for spending my tax money on projects here in my backyard. As for the location, I think its a good fit, if you look at the Johnston County comprehensive plan it's near a neighborhood center which is an area of anticipated growth. It is also relatively central to the fire district's housing base. ( http://www.johnstonnc.com/files/planning/LandUseMap102010.pdf )
I wholeheartedly agree that the County should have done something years ago, but disagree about parks & rec in this are being a waste. Just glad someone is doing something about it.
Well put. If tax dollars are to be collected and spent, I couldn't think of a more direct and targeted use for them than to be assured they are being put to use right around the corner.
Did you go to school? Just kidding by the way, it would be nice if we only paid for the things we need/use...
There are public meeting for this tonight and this Saturday. More information below as well. Dear Cleveland Area Residents: Have you ever wished that the Cleveland Community had more parks, playgrounds, and recreational opportunities like Clayton, Garner, or Raleigh? As more homes and neighborhoods grow around us daily, have you ever wondered why we aren’t setting aside open space in our community for playgrounds, walking/bike trails, space for family picnics where our children can safely run and play, and more athletic fields for both youth and adults? For several months a group of community leaders has been meeting with County Commissioners and State Legislators seeking a way to answer those questions. Johnston County is rather unique since our county government does not have a parks and recreation division. Incorporated towns around us such as Clayton and Smithfield build their parks and athletic fields with a portion of their town taxes. Since the Cleveland Community is unincorporated, there is no available source of funding for acquiring land and building parks in our community. GOOD NEWS! THERE IS A SOLUTION! County and State legislation can be written which will allow the Cleveland Community to form a “Parks and Recreation Tax District” for the explicit purpose of acquiring open space and building and maintaining community parks, playgrounds, and athletic fields. If the community supports this initiative, our County Commissioners will ask our State Legislators to introduce a bill in the 2018 General Assembly that will outline the governance structure for the new district and authorize a public referendum that may be held in November 2018, at which time community residents will be given an opportunity to vote on the formation of the new tax district. County leaders are interested in your opinion. Two informational meetings are planned for you to learn more about this effort and to provide your thoughts and opinions to our county leaders: Thursday, January 18, 2018 – 7pm to 9pm – Cleveland Fire Department, 9039 Cleveland Road, Clayton, NC Saturday, January 20, 2018 – 9am to 11am – C3 Church, 8246 Cleveland Road, Clayton, NC You can also provide your comments on the Greater Cleveland Chamber of Commerce web site. www.greaterclevelandchamber.com
With this weather, is the meeting still on? If not cancelled yet, where can we find out? WRAL? Here? I plan on attending
Tonight's meeting has been postponed: This meeting has been postponed until January 29 at the same location from 7-9 pm due to inclement weather. https://www.facebook.com/events/140401016649567/permalink/141895119833490/
I was present at the community meeting scheduled for this morning at C3 and it was good to see that there was a nice turnout. I feel like the committee members and volunteers did their best to answer everyone's questions. There were a few people that voiced concerns over being taxed but it seemed to me that they were in the minority. I will say some of the conversations I overheard prove that some folks have no clue how the government and taxation work. I would like to thank Denton Lee, Don Wells, Rudolph Wells and Donna White and everyone else for taking the time to explain the process (in as much detail as possible) to us.] and opening themselves up to criticism.
yes, the tax is the problem.... I was not present but yes $$$ is a big problem for a lot of people..... PLUS, 2019 is revaluation of property taxes, so you know for sure that everyones property taxes are going to go up........ All this plus paying extra money for a park when I can walk around my neighborhood and enjoy my yard just as well,,,, well, in my household this is just a bit too much for me to pay. SORRY!
So...you want the park, but don't want to pay for it? Do you want roads, sewer, water, police, etc. too? This costs money. In this specific instance you can pay a tax that will be spent right here in the immediate area and not go to something in Pine Level, Princeton, or Micro. This is somewhat unusual that you would have this much control over exactly how your tax dollars are spent.
Agreed. Good turn-out and the 'staff' did a great job at answering questions, which is not easy to do at a public meeting like this. I had a couple of specific questions pertaining to the tax and maintenance of the park. As for the tax, it looks like there is a fairly lengthy process. Long story short, if all goes as planned the earliest they can expect to assess taxes will be 2019. The process includes legislation, a vote, etc. As for maintenance I got a couple of conflicting answers. Maintenance will be paid out of the operating budget created by the tax, but will not be done by JoCo employees. Not sure who they will be employed by, but perhaps contractors or GCCC. Noone had a solid answer for this. I also agree that a small number of people had an overwhelming lack of civility and basic understanding of the tax and purpose of the park. I overheard a number of cross talk conversations that I was not party to. One woman jumped all over some guy who asked about community fund raising for the effort to keep momentum prior to the tax being levied. She was beside herself when he inquired about the possibility of fund raising. She told him he was already going to be taxed why would he want to voluntarily give more money to the cause. To his credit, he simply pointed at his young daughter and said, "for her, for the kids". Another woman had heard a rumor that the park would only be used for adult sport leagues and GCAA would be left to fend for themselves.
Chances are if your live in a $200,000+ house you are well above the poverty line and can afford $0.04 per $100. In fact, some of those houses may even have a community pool, open space/parks and HOA dues (Not many around here, though and that is why we need the park). Some people may have a $90,000 house on a large piece of land valued at over $500,000. So the argument holds a little water, but not much as the majority of residents in the fire district are now in subdivisions. Sure, it is another line item in the family budget and people will have to adjust. I may be wrong, but I honestly do not think it is as much about the amount of money as it is the general anti-tax, anti-government sentiment and being forced to pay it. However, this is what growth leads to. You can't have your growth and not expect to pay for it. Let's look at some other luxuries you likely pay for in comparison to the new tax: $60 - A night at the movies for a family of four $96 - Yearly subscription to Netflix (basic) $156 - Amazon Prime membership $60 - Monthly fee for gymnastics $60 - The average cost of an Xbox One game $240 - The yearly cost of going out to eat for lunch once every two weeks ($10 x 24) $55 - Yearly membership to BJ's Wholesale Club If you are at the $200,000 property value level then your tax will be $80. This works out to $6.67 per month. I do not think this will cause hardship for anyone.
That would be great, but highly impractical. Given the anti-tax sentiment in this immediate area it would never fly not to mention geography is not on your side. Johnston is the fourteenth largest county (out of 100) in NC by land area at 796 square miles. There would be no way to ensure the right placement, type, etc. of amenities adequately served the entire populace. How may times have you been to a small, small town and seen some sad little corner lot park with a couple of benches, a gazebo, and a broken down charcoal grill stand that no one uses? Those parks are the ones the County has to spend money on to fairly represent the parks and rec effort throughout out the County, while taking away from an application of funds where it would be better used. We have an opportunity to ensure the money collected here, stays here.
The tax rates in Johnston County is .78 making it ranked 24th in the state but with the .07 fire tax we pay brings the tax rate to .85, raising our ranking to 6th highest in the state, with an additional .04 our ranking 4th tied with Vance County. https://www.ncdor.gov/reports-and-statistics/county-property-tax-rates-and-revaluation-schedules The best route to take is to incorporate therefore taking the taxes we collect for Parks and Recreation, Governing our own growth, and keeping other incorporated areas from satellite annexing and carving up our community. Parks to walk our dogs for children to play is great but bottom dollars is our County Commissioners and County Planners are only looking at the how much tax money they can get, not improving roads. I have lived in the Cleveland Community for 43 years and have seen nothing but homes spring up everywhere and very little road improvement to handle the massive influx of growth. Lets Incorporate.
