It would be “extremely generous,” to borrow a phrase County Manager Bryan Land used to describe the county’s mercy in not making the change to ad valorem 10 years ago, to call Land’s and Board of Commissioners Chairman Kenneth Robinette’s statements justifying their change to an ad valorem sales tax distribution method simply “false.”
Robinette claimed that the reason the county didn’t inform the municipalities that they were considering this change in the sales tax distribution method prior to voting on it was because Rockingham and Hamlet didn’t tell the county before relinquishing part of the territory over which they performed code enforcement duties last year, leaving that expense to the county.
“Communication is a two way street,” Robinette wrote in a letter published in the Daily Journal on May 9. “There certainly was no communication by Hamlet and Rockingham with County leaders prior to their decision to dump their unwanted extra-territorial jurisdiction upon the County.”
Rockingham Assistant City Manager John Massey confirmed to the Daily Journal this week that he in fact told Tracy Parris, the county’s planning director, that the city was considering relinquishing this territory in March 2019, about a month before this move appeared on the Rockingham City Council agenda. He and Parris continued to correspond about this issue in the months leading up to the public hearing in May 2019, according to Massey, who added that it was a matter of “professional courtesy” to inform Parris.
Additionally, former Hamlet City Manager Jonathan Blanton informed Parris and Land that they would also be relinquishing part of their ETJ in an email on May 20, 2019. This email came a week after the Hamlet City Council voted to hold a public hearing on the issue, but seven months before the change would take effect on Jan. 1, 2020 (after the county requested the effective date be moved back from Oct. 1). Neither Parris nor Land responded to requests for comment on when they knew the cities would be relinquishing their ETJs.
Robinette putting in writing that the county was not notified of these changes must either be due to an unwillingness to check his facts or a deliberate attempt to deceive.
This comes after Land was directly contradicted by Sharon Edmundson of the Department of State Treasurer in his statement to the commissioners prior to the vote on the change that the Treasurer’s Office “recommended” and “pushed” the county to switch to ad valorem. Edmundson said in an emailed response to City Manager Monty Crump that her staff “was asked by (Land) if the distribution method could be modified; DST staff informed Mr. Land that the option was available to the county.”
Land also disregarded the state’s recommendation that to give “sufficient notice” to the municipalities and to “work in close consultation” with them to sustain this change to ad valorem.
We would like to think that, in a situation where the financial solubility of the municipalities they represent is at stake, the commissioners would at the very least be communicative with municipal leaders and Richmond County residents. But these leaders have heard very little and have all expressed feelings ranging from disappointment to desperation in recent weeks.
Even the simplest, yet most important questions remain unanswered, like what formula Land was using in his own projections for the change to ad valorem which did not provide an accurate picture of how the county would benefit and certainly did not account for the dramatic loss in sales tax revenue Richmond County’s municipalities would incur with the new method in place.
Why would Robinette say that there was no communication on the ETJ reductions when there was? Why would Land say that this change to ad valorem was “recommended” by a state authority that did no such thing? Why did the county make a decision to spite Rockingham and Hamlet without acknowledging the collateral damage it could have on the other municipalities? Was this potential damage known going into the vote?
We don’t know, because they won’t answer.
— The Daily Journal