Earthquake in Avery County

Avery County PASSED the first successful Land Transfer Tax initiative in the state yesterday! Avery County, where they have to truck a Democrat into Newland once a year (usually on the Fourth of July), just to remember what one looks like, passes an enabling referendum for a voluntary new tax on the transfer of properties.

Now, the vote was howlingly close ... 1,434 for to 1,409 against ... but still.

The North Carolina Association of Realtors had fought against it HARD. The John Locke Foundation had mocked the argument that the tax would help local education.

But yet it passed.

'Course, holding the election in the dead of winter might have helped a little, with all those rich Republican second-home owners far far away, marinating in suntan oil.