The top story from today’s print version of the Winston-Salem Journal featured what could be one of the biggest threats to public school funding this state could enact under the guise of fiscal responsibility.

Scott Sexton talks in depth about it in his column.

One hour, 28 minutes and 11 seconds into what Forsyth County commissioners hilariously call a briefing session, County Attorney Gordon Watkins spelled out what legislators are up to now: meddling with property tax rates. Local property tax rates are traditionally set by local elected officials to pay for local priorities.

Leadership in the state House of Representatives, Watkins said, quietly established in late December something called the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform.

Not to be outdone, the Senate went full-on monkey-see-monkey-do and set up its own committee.

Per a mouthpiece speaking for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, the state senator busy trying to keep his place at the head of the trough, the purpose is to “consider policy proposals to rein in the runaway property tax practices being implemented across the state.”

Later Sexton writes, “With property taxes accounting for 59% of the county’s $591 million budget, that would likely mean deep, unpopular cuts to services — public schools and the sheriff’s office, to name two — long after many of the same legislators who once espoused local control have retired to the golf course.”

Phil Berger is the man keeping NC from a new state budget while funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into unregulated private school vouchers. And he wants to control local property taxes that fund social services for each county?