This report has been updated to incorporate action during Wednesday’s session of the N.C. House.
RALEIGH — Cabarrus County voters’ endorsement Tuesday of a quarter-cent sales tax hike confirms a recent trend: County governments have much better luck winning support for sales tax referendums held outside the normal election schedule.
Nearly 60 percent of those voting said yes to the Cabarrus sales-tax increase, but that represented just 2,261 of the county’s 108,408 registered voters. That’s 2 percent. Along with the 1,530 “no” votes, total turnout for the single-issue election reached just 3.5 percent.
A John Locke Foundation Regional Brief issued before the vote had raised questions about tax votes scheduled on days other than well-publicized primary or general election dates.
“Holding a single-issue election on May 17 is unusual,” JLF researchers explained. “Of the 100 county tax-increase votes since the legislature approved the local county option tax in 2007, only 10 votes have been held outside the normal May primary or November general election dates. Of those, 60 percent have been approved, while only 13 percent of tax increases voted on during primary or general election dates were approved.”
Cabarrus’ turnout data confirmed an additional finding from the JLF report. “One of the reasons for the huge difference in approval rates is that holding single-issue elections outside the usual May and November dates is guaranteed to suppress voter turnout,” according to the report. “Average voters are less likely to turn out on, for example, Feb. 1 (Halifax County), Aug. 3 (Robeson County), or March 2 (Randolph County). Turnout of registered voters for those elections was 6.47 percent, 4.22 percent, and 4.86 percent respectively.”
Locke Foundation experts questioned commissioners’ decision to schedule a special election on May 17. “This ploy is hardly democracy in action,” said Dr. Michael Sanera, Director of Research and Local Government Studies. “Commissioners should be ashamed at resorting to such a trick to win ‘voter’ approval.”
“It appears that county commissioners have learned that holding single-issue elections outside the regular primary and general election dates is the key to success,” Sanera added. “The reason this gimmick works is that the county special-interest groups who would benefit are more likely to turn out and vote than those general taxpayers who would be paying the bills.”
Cabarrus is the second North Carolina county to adopt the quarter-cent sales tax this year, following Halifax’s Feb. 1 vote on the issue. Buncombe is the only other county that has reported plans to seek a sales-tax hike to the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. Buncombe has scheduled its referendum for Nov. 8.
Twenty-three counties pursued sales-tax referendums in 2010. Voters shot down all 14 votes scheduled to coincide with the Nov. 2 general election. Seven of the other nine referendums succeeded, including votes scheduled March 2, June 22, and Aug. 3.
Some state lawmakers want to limit counties’ ability to schedule elections on these unconventional dates. House Bill 366 would place new limits on special election dates.
The original version of the bill would have limited special elections to general election and municipal general election dates, “except in cases of a public health or safety emergency.”
The House voted 63-51 Monday in favor of that version of H.B. 366. That was the first of two required votes on the legislation.
The House voted 91-27 Wednesday afternoon to add regularly scheduled primary dates in even-numbered years to the list of authorized special-election dates. Because of the amendment, a final House vote on the full bill was delayed by a day.
If the House approves H.B. 366, it will head to the Senate.