Warren Commissioners Schedule Public Hearing On Proposed Occupancy Tax For Short-Term Rentals

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The Warren County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing at their Monday, June 3, 2024 regular meeting at 6 p.m. to hear public comment about the proposed occupancy tax for short-term rental accommodations in Warren County.

A local occupancy tax applies to the same transactions that are subject to state sales taxes on accommodations mandated by general statutes.

Occupancy taxes on short-term rentals are not levied against the property/business owner; they are levied on the occupant/renter. However, facilitators, rental agents, and business owners engaged in short-term rental accommodations are required to charge the occupancy taxes to the occupant and to remit that revenue to the local government.

In 2023, the General Assembly granted Warren County the authority to levy an occupancy tax up to 5 percent. The approval for the occupancy tax can be found in N.C.S.L. 2023-144, Senate Bill 154, Part 13.

A short-term rental accommodation subject to a local occupancy tax is anything supplied to one person for less than 90 days. Short-term accommodations include hotel and motel rooms, residences, cottages, or a similar lodging facility, as well as any type of structure that is rented for temporary residential use such as houseboats, tents, yurts and train cabooses. Parking spots for recreational vehicles, campsites, and boat slips would not be subject to local occupancy taxes. Occupancy taxes do not apply to enrollment in school, camp or hospital programs.

Occupancy taxes apply to the cost of the accommodation rental, as well as to other mandatory charges of the rental, such as early or late departure fees, cleaning fees, pet fees, etc. (all mandatory charges that are directly related to the use and occupancy of a rental accommodation).

The three parties held liable for collecting occupancy taxes from tenants and for remitting the taxes locally are: retailers (ex: hotel operators, bed and breakfast operators), facilitators (ex: Airbnb, Vrbo), and rental agents (brokers and other persons engaged in property management).

The penalties for delinquent occupancy taxes are the same as the penalties for delinquent sales taxes. Counties are allowed to enforce collection remedies with the exception of placing liens on properties and governments cannot foreclose on properties that do not property remit their occupancy tax collections. Occupancy taxes are not subject to successor liability (they do not go with the property when it is sold).

For more information, visit www.warrencountync.com or email Charla Duncan, Director of Warren County Community and Economic Development, at charladuncan@warrencountync.gov.

Closer Look At Newly Released Fire Study

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Now that the county’s fire study has been conducted and recommendations received, the big question is: What’s next?

Members of the county’s public safety committee and the fire commission got the report, which was conducted by AP Triton, a company that the Vance County Board of Commissioners selected last summer year to do the study amid questions around how the county’s fire services should be structured.

On Thursday afternoon, AP Triton’s Frank Blackley was on hand to offer an overview of the study and the findings and recommendations it contains. A discussion of the full report is on the agenda for Monday’s regular monthly meeting of the board of commissioners.

The study includes 19 recommendations, the first two being keeping the current Vance County Fire Department as it is and having a separate position for county fire marshal.

The study involved getting lots of information from each of the volunteer fire departments as well as making site visits to each location.

In an overview of stations, Blackley’s presentation to the joint committee included bullet points about conditions at the county’s fire stations.  They are noted below:

  • The Kittrell station is inadequate and does not meet the requirements of a modern fire station.
  • Bearpond, Drewry and Epsom have ample space and room to expand if needed.
  • Cokesbury and Wakins are adequate, but do not have room for expansion.
  • Hicksboro’s main station is in fair condition but modified to include one bedroom. The second station only houses a fire truck and has no sleeping rooms.
  • Townsville is adequate, but minimal room to expand.
  • Vance County Rescue Squad’s facility is insufficient and no dedicated (space) for training or meeting and limited space for growth.
  • VCFD main station is shared with EMS. Office space is inadequate for both agencies. The station lacks sufficient space for training and meetings.
  • The Kerr Lake station is in good condition.

The study looked at equipment, including trucks and other apparatus vehicles used by firefighters. Most of the trucks are in fair or good condition, the report states, but most of the tenders/tankers are older models. Maintenance costs make older equipment more expensive to operate, but, Blackley said, the cost of new trucks – and their lengthy delivery times – is prohibitive for many departments.

Blackley’s overview included 6 key findings, which are below:

  • Service demand is heavier around Henderson down into Bearpond. Converting VCFD to volunteer would reduce service in the area with the highest demand.
  • The Communication Center does not apply NFPA recommendations for call handling and dispatching.
  • VCFD has slow reaction times when responding to an accident.
  • There is not an adopted county-wide incident management system.
  • The departments do not have consistent protocols and SOGs (standard operating guidelines)
  • There has been no formal voluntary adoption of NFPA standards

The study also noted a need for the county to develop a formal, written countywide incident management system to create consistency among departments. And Blackley noted a need for adopting National Fire Protection Association standards and to have consistent protocols and standard operating guidelines in place across departments.

The study included a pathway to implement the recommendations, starting with the creation of a Fire and Rescue Services Working Group to develop and prioritize goals.

Blackley said the findings of the fire study can help county leaders address challenges to provide fire coverage to a growing county population, “how to determine what those resources are going to look like and plan for the future.”

At some point , he said, there will be an increase in population because of growth spreading out from the Triangle area.

He also said that the current fire tax rate will not keep up with inflation, noting that without an increase in the fire tax, the fund would be in the red by 2029. The current fire tax rate is 8.9 cents per $100 valuation, and the proposed fire tax rate in the 2024-25 budget is 5.9 cents per $100.

The complete report can be found on the county’s website, www.vancecounty.org.

AP Triton Presents Fire Study To Fire Commission, Public Safety Committee

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Members of the county’s public safety committee and the fire commission received a fire study report completed by AP Triton, which included 19 recommendations for the county’s fire service.

The first recommendation was keeping the current Vance County Fire Department as it is. The report stated that VCFD “is essential to a continued level of service between Bearpond and Henderson and is a vital backup to all departments serving Vance County.”

Other recommendations include having a separate position of fire marshal and possibly merging or increase collaboration between VCFD and the county rescue squad.

The complete report can be found on the county’s website, www.vancecounty.org.

Frank Blackley with AP Triton presented highlights of the 145-page report during the joint meeting of the two committees Thursday afternoon.

Blackley said the findings of the fire study can help county leaders address challenges to provide fire coverage to a growing county population, “how to determine what those resources are going to look like and plan for the future.”

At some point , he said, there will be an increase in population because of growth spreading out from the Triangle area.

He also said that the current fire tax rate will not keep up with inflation, noting that without an increase in the fire tax, the fund would be in the red by 2029. The current fire tax rate is 8.9 cents per $100 valuation, and the proposed fire tax rate in the 2024-25 budget is 5.9 cents per $100.

The study involved getting lots of information from each of the volunteer fire departments as well as making site visits to each location.

The study also noted a need for the county to develop a formal, written countywide incident management system to create consistency among departments. And Blackley noted a need for adopting National Fire Protection Association standards and to have consistent protocols and standard operating guidelines in place across departments.

The study included a pathway to implement the recommendations, starting with the creation of a Fire and Rescue Services Working Group to develop and prioritize goals.

A few representatives from the two committees questioned some of the data points in the study, and Blackley said there were several sources that provided the information, from the individual fire departments to 911 and CAD data to the U.S. Census.

County Manager C. Renee Perry asked Blackley whether correcting those inaccuracies would change the recommendations contained in the study and he said “no, probably not.”

Commissioner Dan Brummitt, who also chairs the Public Safety Committee, said a number of the recpomendations come down to money. “It’s a budget consideration – we don’t have an endless budget…a lot of these things would be real nice,” he added.

“We’ve made great strides since 2006, when another fire study was done. He said many of the recommendations and findings contained in this most recent fire study are issues that were being dealt with already.

 

 

TownTalk: Hawkins Named Vice Dean of UNC School of Social Work

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Robert Hawkins graduated high school in 1981 and he’s pretty much stayed in the field of academia since he left Henderson to attend Appalachian State University as a new undergraduate.

His experiences growing up in Vance County, along with his extensive research in the field of social work and especially the effects of living in poverty, have served Dr. Robert Hawkins throughout his career.

Hawkins will become vice dean of the UNC-CH School of Social Work on July 1 and he was a guest on Thursday’s TownTalk to discuss his new role, his research and growing up in the area.

Although his primary role will be administrator – think of it like being a chief operating officer – in dealing with day-to-day activities, he said he’ll use his research into how people deal with poverty, the effect of poverty on individuals and on society, to inform how he functions as an administrator.

“Poverty is so much more than whether or not you have money,” Hawkins explained. He also wants to learn about people’s lived experiences in poverty and the processes that people go through that allow them to survive in poverty.

“My research is central to what I believe social work research should look like,” he said. “We look to move people to a better place” where they can thrive and rise beyond their current situation.

Hawkins said he would definitely use his own life experiences, as well as his experience as a researcher to help drive his decisions and the initiatives he wants to be involved in.

While the School of Social Work doesn’t make policy, it can be a resource to help policymakers in the legislature. The decisions that are made will be the result of a team effort, he said, adding that he views his role as a service position – a support position – rather than a position of power.

“My job will be to make sure the School of Social Work is doing the best it can and being the best it can be,” Hawkins said. “I will be making decisions with a lot of other people.”

Having faculty members with strong policy backgrounds can help evaluate existing policies and those that are being created, not to influence policy-making but help people understand which policies may be most effective and why.

He was attracted to the newly created vice dean position by the spirit of community and the chance to collaborate in making decisions within the realm of social work – and the impacts that can be felt within the state and maybe across the nation.

The idea of being able to “implement a vision that you’ve created together” is most appealing, he added.

The UNC School of Social Work is ranked fourth in the country, on the campus of one of the foremost public universities in the nation. “Who wouldn’t want to be there?” he said.

The idea of social justice is something that trained social workers have done for decades, Hawkins said. “When we talk about social justice, we’re talking about how people equitably exist in society. It’s the shared human worth of all people – it’s not controversial, or at least it shouldn’t be.”

Talking about social justice is just one of the things that Hawkins said he enjoys about his work. “Social work has given me opportunities that I could have never imagined,” he said. A true social worker is a researcher, someone who can resolve conflict, engage in mediation and who can understand everyday human behavior.”

He said he thinks about this a lot and one area he keeps circling back to is education. He remembers one high school English teacher who really helped him and believed in him and his potential. “That person guided me in the right direction,” he said.

Then, teachers were not so over-stretched, he said, and they could pay closer attention to students’ needs, especially their educational needs.

“Do teachers today have the time to pay that kind of attention to their students? I’m sure many do, but it’s something that we should be encouraging and helping teachers accomplish. We’re not seeing that out in the world right now.”

With family still living in Henderson, Hawkins finds himself in Henderson fairly often. He loves to stop in at his favorite barbecue restaurant (he didn’t identify it, but did reveal that he grew up just a ways from Skipper’s Forsyth’s).

He recalled his childhood, growing up in a house near Satterwhite Point without running water and working in tobacco fields.

In 1980, he said the family was able to move from that house to a mobile home. “This was a big deal,” he said. That move marked a significant economic change for his family. “For me, it wasn’t a step down – it was a step up.”

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Calculating Your Property Tax Bill

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Whether you reach for a sharpened No. 2 pencil and a piece of paper or choose to tap numbers into your phone’s calculator, it’s time to do a little math to at least have an idea of what your tax bill may look like.

Although neither the city nor the county has adopted the new budgets, the recommended budgets have been received. The City Council got a 158-page budget document earlier this month and the Vance County Board of Commissioners got a 138-page budget document on Monday, May 28.

Now comes the time when each body of elected officials has budget work sessions and holds public hearings to hear citizens’ comments about the budget particulars; budgets must be approved before July 1.

The city’s budget includes a property tax rate of 55 cents per $100 valuation; the county’s budget includes a property tax rate of 61.3 cents per $100 valuation.

As both the city council and county commissioners review the budget, it’s possible that some changes will be made before the final budget is adopted.

However, if you’re itching to see what your tax bill could be, you can play around with the current tax rates that are contained in the proposed budgets.

Now here’s where some basic math comes in to play. Consider this scenario:

Let’s say your property is valued at $100,000.

  • If your property is in the county, you will need to use the 61.3 cents per $100 valuation PLUS the fire tax rate, which is 5.9 cents per $100 valuation to get a total of 67.2 cents per $100.
  • If your property is located within the city of Henderson, guess what – you will add the city’s rate of 55 cents per $100 PLUS the county’s rate of 61.3 cents for a total of 1.163 per $100.

But there’s one more important step: You must divide your property value ($100,000 in this example) by 100 because the tax rate is per $100.

$100,000 divided by 100 = $1,000

Using this scenario, county residents would multiply $1,000 by .672 to get $672; city residents would multiply $1,000 by 1.163 to get $1,163.

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TownTalk: Proposed County and City Tax Rates

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Now that city and county elected officials have gotten recommended budgets from the city and county managers, it’s time for budget work sessions and public hearings to hear citizens’ comments before the final budgets are adopted.

State law requires that local governments must adopt their budgets before July 1, when the new fiscal year begins. June 1 is Saturday and July 1 is on a Sunday, giving leaders 20 business days to complete the difficult work of making any adjustments to the budget documents before the budgets are adopted.

The Vance County Board of Commissioners officially received the $57 million-plus budget just Monday from Manager C. Renee Perry.

This is Perry’s first budget presentation to this board of commissioners, and she told WIZS News said it was her decision to go with a revenue-neutral budget. The proposed property tax valuation is 61.3 cents per $100 valuation. The current valuation is 89 cents per $100, but the most recent reappraisal process has boosted the total property value by $2 Billion – to $4.9 billion from $2.9 billion.

The Henderson City Council received a $45 million budget from City Manager Terrell Blackmon earlier this month. The budget includes a 55-cent per $100 valuation – 10 cents higher than the revenue-neutral rate of 45 cents per $100 valuation.

The recommended city budget does not include any funding for McGregor Hall, which had requested $75,000. At Monday’s public hearing, there was a suggestion that was floated to give McGregor Hall a one-time $75,000 grant, provided other stipulations are in place – including having a current Council member on the voting board of the entertainment venue.

Numerous McGregor Hall proponents spoke at the Monday public hearing to voice their support of providing funds to the performing arts venue.

Like the city budget, Perry’s budget to county commissioners does not include any funding for McGregor Hall. It also doesn’t include funding for capital projects like jail renovations or a new EMS station.

“I’m not sure if they will change it, but I don’t plan on recommending an increase … I will be clear about items that can’t be funded without a tax increase,” Perry said to WIZS.

The 2024-25 county budget is less than 1 percent higher than last year’s budget – it’s larger by about $347,000. In her presentation, Perry stated that the budget was a conservative one.

The county will hold a public hearing as part of its Monday, June 3 meeting and budget work sessions on Monday, June 10 and Thursday, June 13 – all beginning at 6 p.m.

The city’s next budget work session, previously scheduled for Thursday, May 30, has been cancelled.

The next city meeting is set for Monday, June 3.

The 158-page recommended city budget document can be found at https://henderson.nc.gov/. Under the Departments heading, click on Finance to go directly to the dropdown box where the document is located.

The 138-page recommended county budget can be found at https://www.vancecounty.org/. Under the Departments heading, click on Board of Commissioners and locate the file in the dropdown box on the right side of the page.

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MedAssist OTC Medicine Giveaway May 31 At Warren Armory

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The Warren County Health Department is partnering with NC MedAssist and Triangle North Healthcare Foundation to host a free over-the-counter medicine giveaway on Friday, May 31, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

The event will be held at the Warren County Armory Civic Center located at 501 US Hwy 158 Bus E in Warrenton. The NC MedAssist Free Pharmacy Program provides medicine items including allergy, cough and cold, pain relief, vitamins and children’s medicine. Vendors will also be on-site to provide free health screenings for children and adults as well as information on a variety of health topics.

No appointment or registration is needed. You must be 18 years or older to receive medicines. Dr. Margaret Brake, health director of Warren County Health Department, welcomes the event to the community. “I am excited to have this wonderful event to come back to the county,” Brake said. “Sometimes it is expensive to buy these types of medicines from the pharmacy so I invite everyone to come and get some free medicines for themselves and their family. You do not need bring an ID or income verification to qualify for this program.”