THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 14, 1995 TAG: 9507140416
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Longtime Ocracoke Island residents faced with losing their homes because of soaring property taxes will have to wait until next year for help from the General Assembly.
Two bills that would change the state's homestead exemption were approved by the Senate earlier this session but are stalled and probably won't be scheduled for review before lawmakers adjourn.
One bill would increase the value of residential property that could be excluded from taxation while another bill would give county governments more flexibility to grant its residents homestead exemptions.
``This is the third year in a row that a homestead exemption bill has died in a House committee,'' said Rep. Zeno Edwards, a Beaufort County Republican. ``There are only a few counties that would take advantage of this, so support for the bill is not that strong.''
Edwards represents Ocracoke, one of the communities expected to benefit from changes in the homestead exemption, in the House.
One homestead exemption bill, sponsored by Sen. C.R. Edwards, a Cumberland County Democrat, would increase the value of property that low-income elderly or disabled people could exempted from their tax bills from $15,000 to $20,000. The measure also increases the income threshold that determines eligibility for the exemption from $11,000 to $15,000.
The measure was approved by the Senate five months ago and was referred to the House Finance Committee.
House Majority Leader N. Leo Daughtry, a Smithfield Republican, told the Charlotte Observer on Wednesday that the bill is not on the finance committee's to-do list during its final meetings of the session.
Some members of the new House Republican majority say they're reluctant to approve the measure because it would redirect the costs of the tax break to local governments, and they pledged not to saddle counties and cities with so-called unfunded mandates.
The other bill, sponsored by Sen. Roy A. Cooper III, a Rocky Mount Democrat, would give counties the authority to enact local homestead exemptions in addition to the statewide exemption. It would also allow counties to raise the definition of low income so that more local residents could qualify.
The legislation amends the state constitution to give counties the needed flexibility and requires a voter referendum during the November 1996 general election.
The bill also has been put on hold in the House Finance Committee.
KEYWORDS: NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY PROPOSED BILL REAL ESTATE TAX
PERSONAL PROPERTY by CNB