A conversation with New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise about taxes, budget cuts, and spending priorities

On today’s show, a conversation with Republican New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise about taxes and government spending. Scalise recently penned an opinion piece in the Wilmington Business Journal, which we’ll have links to on the page, where he laid out a fairly simple argument: if property values are going up, taxes should go down. So we invited him to the studio to unpack that idea, and get into some of the granular details of the county’s budgeting process — including where Scalise would like to trim the budget, and where he’d like to spend more.

Links:

• OPINION: When Property Values Go Up, Tax Rates Must Go Down (Wilmington Business Journal)
• New Hanover County set to effectively raise taxes, in large part for teacher pay (2021)
• New Hanover County budget process: Soaring property values, increased operating costs
• "Balancing Act" — New Hanover County's interactive budget tool

Below: Photo of the budget "binder" from last year.

Benjamin Schachtman

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