In Walden's discussion about the Lines Orchids Property commercial center, there has been a lot of concern about compensating for the loss of the town of Walden's share of the Hall Tax. I did some research and found that we had small increases in our property taxes in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to recover losses from the gradual elimination of the Hall Tax. These increases were voted on by the mayor and the aldermen and were approved 3-0. The result is our present property tax rate covers 55 percent of our previous Hall Tax income.
Many people have inferred that we need the massive development proposed to cover the tax. Obviously we could cover all the remaining tax shortfall by having a much more scaled back, green development that would suit the mountain character. A development like that is more in keeping with the Walden atmosphere and a planned type of development that Lee Davis supports.
Gary Smith