Camden County Can't Get No Respect

Camden County is so poor it wants a landfill to import trash from other states to generate franchise fees that would pay debt service on a loan for a school addition and sewer extension that could not be built without also getting a rural development loan from the US Department of Agriculture to renovate the existing school.

Camden has a small but rapidly growing population and very little commercial property that normally supplements the operating costs of providing public services in residential areas of NC counties through property tax.

Despite some of the current regulatory curbs, Camden grew from 6,885 people in 2000 to 8,967 in 2005, making it one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation.

The North Carolina Association of Realtors has the audacity to say that Camden County, one of a handful of NC counties with the authority to impose a land transfer tax, has "artificially low property tax rates". Yet Camden, at $0.900 per $100, has one of the highest county wide tax rates in the state and still struggles to meet the capital needs associated with growth. Out of 100 counties only Edgecombe, Gates, Orange, Scotland, Vance and Hertford have higher county wide tax rates than Camden but the NC Realtors still think it is "artificially low". By comparison, Wake County's county wide tax rate is $0.634 per $100 (NCDOR).

How high do NC Realtors want property taxes to go in Camden County to pay for Medicaid share and the capital costs associated with growth? The highest county wide rate in the state?

I tell ya, I get no respect at all. I was drowning. I was yelling, "Help, help!" The lifeguard came over. He said, "All right, buddy, keep it down, keep it down."

           Rodney Dangerfield