More than 77% of most likely North Carolina general election voters remain opposed to a real estate transfer tax, according to a statewide survey released by the North Carolina Association of Realtors today. The survey was conducted by Telephone Strategies Group, a Chicago based opinion research firm, between Sunday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 24. The survey included 504 respondents and has a 4.37% +/- margin of error.
“The voters are overwhelmingly opposed to a home tax. They get the fact that a real estate transfer tax is a tax on their hard work,” said Tim Kent, executive vice president of the NC Association of Realtors. “What’s more interesting is the fact that voters do not plan to support real estate transfer taxes if they are placed on local ballots.”
The survey showed voters would oppose a local real estate transfer referendum in their local community by a 78% to 14% margin.
“Voters are very concerned about local governments giving away tax breaks to big corporations as economic incentives and then not having revenue to help pay for infrastructure services,” Kent said. “Nearly 70% of voters say North Carolina homeowners should not be forced to pay higher taxes when local and county governments are giving property tax breaks to big business.”
Kent said voters believe that economic incentive dollars should be directed to pay for infrastructure services such as new schools, roads, water, sewer, parks and housing.
“The voters believe that a tax on new and existing homes will hurt working families, young couples who are trying to get a start in life and senior citizens who are trying to downsize,” Kent added.
Kent added that voters are very suspect of the League of Municipalities and the Association of County Commissioners when they support a voter referendum on higher taxes but oppose referendums on annexation and eminent domain.
Download a copy of the survey.