The May 2 Republican County Commissioner primary could have a significant impact on the future direction of county government, and particularly on the property tax rate.

Incumbents Steve Johnson, Marvin Norman, and Godfrey Williams are running for re-election. They are facing a challenge from newcomers Brad Howard, Vickie Kidd, and Sheryl Souther in the Republican primary. The winners will square off against three Democrats in the general election in November.

The three incumbents have pursued a moderate-to-conservative course. They have not raised the property tax rate. (The rate will increase next year to pay for school construction bonds that the voters passed in a referendum.)

Challenger Brad Howard has been a Republican for less than six months. He was registered as Unaffiliated until November, 2005.

Howard appears to be running the most active campaign of the three challengers. He is very well-funded, and will likely spend the most money of any candidate. He began running newspaper ads over a month before the primary.

An invitation to a fund-raiser for Howard lists 24 hosts, the majority of whom are associated with the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce. The invitation described Howard as “our South Iredell candidate”.

Vickie Kidd is a Mooresville real estate broker and former employee of the City of Charlotte.

Sheryl Souther of Statesville works part-time in real estate. As of the date this is written, she does not appear to be actively campaigning.

The Iredell Republican Men’s Club hosted a candidate forum. Norman, Johnson, Howard, and Williams attended. The candidates made opening statements, and were then asked whether they favored spending county tax dollars to extend commuter rail into the county.

Marvin Norman said he was committed to using county money wisely and to keeping taxes as low as possible.

Steve Johnson noted that, in his nearly 12 years on the board, he had never voted to raise taxes. He asked the audience to “support local and state candidates who will limit the growth of government.”

Brad Howard said the county needed to build the infrastructure to support development. He cited his business experience as his biggest strength.

Godfrey Williams noted keeping a low tax rate helped attract businesses and jobs. He said that there were many good school teachers, but there were problems with the school administration.

Marvin Norman said he would vote against using tax money for the project. He remarked that no firm cost estimates had been given, and that the county had a lot of greater needs.

Godfrey Williams declared he too would voted against tax-funding for commuter rail. He charged the proposal “has been put forward by developers who will make a lot of money from it.”

Brad Howard answered, “That’s a very touchy subject here.” He said commuter rail would be a strong economic engine, but that he “would not today” support spending tax money on the line.

(Richard Howard, Brad Howard’s father, was in attendance and remarked that, although we wasn’t taking a position on the issue, just the prospect of commuter rail had greatly increased the value of property near the proposed stations.)

Steve Johnson asserted that he would not vote to spend tax money on the project. He noted that projections show there would be very few riders, and that cost estimates kept going up. “There is no way it makes financial sense”.

Vickie Kidd did not attend the forum. In a Charlotte Observer survey she said the board should research all transportation options.