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February 25, 2009
Tax Revolt Meeting Draws Up to 1,400 People
Calling it a revolution and vowing that the anti-tax movement exploding across the county has yet to reach its critical mass, organizers and members of the fledgling group say profligate spending, oppressively high tax rates and a political class that has lost touch with its constituents are in the crosshairs of change.
In an astonishing show of strength and depth, as many as 1,400 people went to Hillsborough on Monday night to protest the county's large hikes in property revaluations and to learn how to combat what many see as abuse of power. The crowd grew so large so fast that the fire marshal began turning back the crush of people trying to enter the Big Barn in the Daniel Boone Village, whose parking lot was jammed tightly with cars and lines of people stretching all the way to Churton Street hundreds of feet away.
"We went up there because I'd been outraged at how high our valuation is on our house," said Nancy Oates of Chapel Hill. "We were absolutely stunned that there were so many people there."
That wasn't the only surprise.
"We kind of thought it would be all people from northern Orange County, that there would be a lot of pickup trucks and ball hats. But there were a lot of people of all ages, all races . . . in business suits and professional dress," Oates said. "There were some from Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and that kind of surprised me, the diversity of the crowd."
Oates believes property values in her Mendel Drive neighborhood in Chapel Hill's Old Forest Creek neighborhood is "being revalued based on Carolina North being built, but that's all on hold. . . we're a long way from that."
She said she has appealed her revaluation, and after attending Monday's meeting, "I was very heartened to see that so many people evidently felt like I did."
Nobody is more shocked than the founder of the movement, Bryan Berger of Carrboro, who called Monday's meeting "a spectacle. I mean it was an event."
"I started this in my house three Wednesdays ago with 26 people," and 10 others unable to attend, Berger said. "This truly is exploding."
"We thought, 'Well, gosh, if 300 people show up we'll feel good," Berger said. "The whole place was full by 7. People were sitting on floors, people were sitting on tables, it was standing room only."
When he walked outside to see how many people the fire marshal was denying admission to, Berger said he "looked at these people and it brought chills to me" realizing the line went all the way to the street.
"People are absolutely sick of the way these governments -- Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County -- are spending money," Berger said. "People love living in these communities. . . but these political fools are destroying it.
Wild Thing's comment........
This is great news and since all of this has just started it should grow to even more in the coming months.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 25, 2009 05:40 AM
Comments
Noble gestures Chrissie and I hope it gains traction, but Chapel Hill isn't known for it's conservative values. My humble apologies to Rudyard Kipling and Lord Alfred Tennyson for the quip, “Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, into the valley of death rode the six hundred...”
I hold out a futile hope but don't have any faith for their success, it's like watching Arnold Schwarzenegger genuflect.
Posted by: Jack - American-American at February 25, 2009 11:40 AM
Not far from our home [in the States]. If we were there, now, I can assure you I'd have made the drive from Wake Forest. Hillsborough is most famous for its Hog Festival in the summer. How fitting. Good on Hillsborough and Carboro and Chapel Hill. [Bet John Edwards wasn't there. His house is in Chapel Hill.]
Posted by: BT in SA at February 25, 2009 11:57 AM
Jack, yes it is truly noble, that is a wonderful way to say it too.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 25, 2009 06:03 PM
BT in SA, thank you so much for sharing about that. I would love to go to something like this.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 25, 2009 06:05 PM
