The state Senate overwhelmingly voted to kill a land transfer tax increase option that lawmakers had made available to voters last year.
The vote was 38 to 9. It came after Senate leaders ruled out of order an amendment to repeal the taxing option within the Senate's $21.4 billion budget proposal, Dan Kane reports.
State Sen. David Hoyle's bill would prevent counties from holding referendums for voters to consider raising the land transfer tax by no more than .4 percent. Since the option was made available, nineteen counties have rejected it.
"The people that I represent are up in arms with me and I'm offering this to try to bring an end to that," said Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat.
State Sen. Charlie Dannelly, a Charlotte Democrat, said the taxing option should stay.
"We should not promise our citizens something and think they don't have enough sense to vote whether they want it or not," Dannelly said.
The Senate will have to vote a second time before the legislation moves to the House. It faces a tougher sell there, as House leaders fought to include the option in last year's budget bill as part of a Medicaid relief package for counties.
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