Why property taxes are going up all across the Triangle

Driving the news: Wake, Durham and Orange counties all set new property tax rates that will cause owners to pay more. So did every town and city in Wake County, from Raleigh to Zebulon.

Of note: The new round of property tax increases comes after Wake County's most recent property valuation, which saw record increases in value, meaning many homeowners' tax bill could be changing significantly.

• Every Wake County town set rates above what is considered the "revenue-neutral rate," or the tax rate that would have brought in the same amount of money prior to the recent revaluations.

By the numbers: Take the Wake County town of Knightdale. Its tax rate will actually decrease from 45 cents per $100 of assessed value to 44 cents.

• Yes, but: Because home values soared in the revaluation, homeowners will pay significantly more. In fact, of all the Wake County municipalities, Knightdale's new tax rate is higher above its revenue-neutral rate (30 cents per $100) than any other. Residents there could see their annual tax bill increase by more than 50%.
• Raleigh's rate grew the least over its neutral rate, going up 12.9%. Other municipalities fell between Raleigh and Knightdale.
• Durham County didn't go through a revaluation this year, but the combined city/county tax rate increased by 6.49% in the most recently passed budgets.

State of play: The main driver of these higher taxes: the need to give city and county workers raises — from police officers and teachers to sanitation workers and administrative staff.

• Private sector wages have grown significantly in the Triangle since the pandemic — putting pressure on the public sector to do the same to retain workers and fill open roles.

What they're saying: Morrisville Mayor TJ Cawley said local governments had tried to limit the amount they were asking of taxpayers in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, but city and towns can't delay the needs forever.

• "Our staff is our largest asset," Cawley told Axios. "We can't not give them raises and expect them to stay. I think there's always going to be upward pressure."
• "No one wants to really say [government workers] can't get paid more because things are costing more," Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams told Axios. "But you have to remember that we are not a corporation. We are a government. We raise money by taxes, not selling a product."

Zoom in: Local government workers have had more leverage in recent years— whether that is through moving into a growing number of private sector jobs or even to another municipality that might offer more per hour, Williams said.

• That is keenly felt in law enforcement. Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin previously told Axios that the city's police officers are often poached by other Wake County towns that pay more than Raleigh does.
• In its most recent budget, Raleigh is giving some police officers a 10% raise — a number that is still smaller than the local police union asked for. Some police officers in Durham — which is struggling to feel vacant roles —  are getting a 22.5% raise.

Local workers are also increasingly willing to walk off the job to call for higher wages.

• A large portion of Durham County's budget increase will go to pay for raises for Durham Public School workers, who earlier this year held walkouts that caused schools to close in protest of their wages.
• Last fall, Durham sanitation workers didn't pick up trash for several days in order to pressure the city to raise their wages.

The other side: Some residents across the Triangle have expressed concerns that rising property taxes would hurt low-income residents or elderly homeowners on fixed-incomes.

• "I own my home, I don't have a mortgage," Judy Springer, a 74-year-old Morrisville resident, told the News & Observer. "But if I can't afford to live here because I can't afford the taxes, what am I going to do?"

The bottom line: Inflationary pressures are still being felt, with city workers demanding more to meet the cost of living in the Triangle.