Sandhills

The history of racing in the south is pretty interesting. The most popular and purely American of theses stories is of Moonshine Runners who souped up their cars to be able to out-run the law. Before I was even a twinkle in my parent's eyes, they were both racing on the beaches in Daytona.

Rockingham Speedway, "The Rock" is a paper clip shaped track on US 1 in Richmond County between Hoffman and the town of Rockingham. This large structure, a monument to all things racing, stands all alone surrounded by fields that twice a year were filled with cars, trucks, campers and motor homes. One small mom and pop gas station is close by, all other businesses require at least a 15-minute drive. This county, like many of its neighboring counties, had earlier been dealt quite a blow as the textile jobs were shipped to Mexico courtesy of NAFTA and CAFTA

Yesterday’s Pilot reports Moore, Chatham, and Orange Counties are joining together to request new local taxing options as alternative sources of revenue to existing sales and property taxes. It is hoped that three counties working together and which happen to be represented at least partially by the Speaker will be more effective in bringing fairness and consistency to taxing authority for all 100 NC counties.

An important element of these resolutions is that the counties are asking to have these options so they can put them up for referendum. This is an important distinction, because if the legislature is to deny these options, they are saying they know better than the voters do about how the people would choose to be taxed. Of course, would also be saying, in not so many words, they desperately need the money that flows from the homebuilder and real estate lobbies. If we're talking about referendums, there should be no need for the Legislature to act to “protect” people from their county governments.

North Carolina’s Sandhills is part of the Inner Coastal Plain and includes Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Moore, Richmond, and Scotland counties. It’s part of the U S Fish and Wildlife’s “Safe Harbor Program”. (Couldn’t figure out how to copy the map that shows the Sandhills region, you have to zoom on the first map on the left side of the page) Their website defines the Sandhills as being

south of Highway 24/27 in Moore county, east of Highway 220 and north of highway 74 in Richmond county; north of highways 74 and 401 in Scotland county; north of highway 401 in Hoke county; west of I-95 in Cumberland county; and south of highway 27 and west of highway 401 in Harnett county.