The People's Alliance Coordinating Committee has taken a position supporting a civic auditorium, in downtown Durham that could be used by the American Dance Festival and other arts and performing groups. The CC is against a prepared food tax as the means to pay for the auditorium. The statement adopted by the CC offers suggestions for other funding sources, including the property tax and the hotel tax. There are other state and federal funding options that could be explored as well, including, working to reestablish the availability of federal funds for local communities, and working with the state legislative delegation to secure other taxing powers for municipalities, such as a local income tax. A tax is regressive if it costs those with lower incomes a greater percentage of their income than it costs those with larger incomes.
Sales taxes are generally the most regressive type of taxes.
Lower-income families, of necessity, spend a larger proportion of their income on goods. Salestaxes hit the lower-income brackets hardest. Property taxes, on the other hand, are slightly regressive. But the very affluent also spend a large portion of their income on investments other than their residences. These families pay a lesser percentage of their income in property taxes than most low-income families.