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Observations
July 4, 2019 |
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 Wingate Lassiter |
Not your typical editorial page
is this going to be from now on . . .
I'm a bit disappointed the Sun's "Opinions" page hasn't attracted any "letters to the editor" since we launched the Weekly Sun in January. Looks like folks around here have gotten out of that habit since we've been without a traditional community newspaper for some time now.
So, I'm going to make this easier for both you the reader and me the editor.
By re-naming the page "Observations" we expand the limits of what can be presented here. In addition to conventional "editorials" from me and "letters" from you, we can share "short burst" comments about this and that, we can publish digital photos of just about anything that's interesting to you and the rest of us, or you can simply raise questions about local issues and situations that deserve answers.
The only rule is that whatever is published here must carry the name of the person who submits it --- and that must be your real name, not a pseudonym that disguises one's identity (as they did in the early days of community journalism).
Let's get started....
Want to compare property-tax rates?
Comparing municipal electric rates is pretty simple: You pay for what you use.
Comparing municipal property-tax rates is another matter because property-tax bills depend more on how local real estate is valued than the tax rate itself.
So, for what it's worth, here's how property-tax rates stack up for the four Johnston towns that also sell electricity:
Clayton has the highest rate: 58 cents per $100 valuation --- left unchanged this year even after upward real-estate revaluations.
Smithfield is next with a rate of 57 cents --- also unchanged this year.
Selma's rate, also unchanged, is 54 cents.
Benson's rate is now 53 cents --- down a penny from last year's 54 cents.
The only fair and realistic way to compare local real-estate taxes is to find a similar residence in each of those towns and then calculate the property-tax bill for each using the county's new "assessed value" multiplied by the tax rate.
It would be interesting to see the results if someone wants to go to the trouble of figuring it out....
And now for some "Pictures of the Week"
We've got naturally occurring decorations for the Fourth of July with Smithfield's red crape myrtles, shown here in bloom along Bridge Street west of the Post Office. I'm pretty sure these trees were planted by the town's Appearance Commission back in the 1970s when an effort was made to line certain trees with either crape myrtles or dogwoods or Bradford pears. Many have survived; others have vanished from view because of storms and/or "survival of the fittest."
Downtown Smithfield's Sarah Edwards has captured a number of nifty scenes from her bailiwick that she posts on Facebook. She got this sunset shot about a week ago on Market Street near the Courthouse.
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