“Here’s the deal: Taxes that people pay are really a function of two things: that which is taxed, called your tax base (it could be your income, it could be spending, it could be the value of your house) and the tax rate that’s applied to that base," explains Dr. Walden, an economist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

“Now many economists would argue that only if the tax rate goes up should you consider that to be a tax increase. For example, if your income goes up and the income tax rate ... does remain the same, you are, of course, going to pay more in taxes. Likewise if your property value goes up and the property tax rate remains the same, you’ll pay more in taxes.

“Now where this gets a little sticky I think is with the property tax because we have these long periods – in many counties, eight years -- between valuations of property. So over that time hopefully the value of your house has gone up. Even if commissioners keep the tax rate the same, that means you will pay a big, big additional bill. That causes people to have a lot of issues.”