RALEIGH - More than 50 North Carolina mayors signed a letter in support of Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed 3/4-cent sales tax increase to help fund K-12 education, but none were from eastern Wake County.

Not necessarily because they oppose the proposal.

Zebulon Mayor Bob Matheny, for example, says he might have signed it – if someone had asked his opinion in the first place.

“No one called me,” said Zebulon Mayor Bob Matheny, who serves on the Board of Directors for the N.C. League of Municipalities. “How can I favor or oppose something when it's not presented to me?”

In fact, support gatherers from Perdue's office didn't call any of the mayors in Knightdale, Wendell, or Zebulon.

Mayors of larger towns such as Durham and Wilmington headlined the letter.

“What else is new?” Matheny jokes.

Folks in these parts are used to being neglected, Matheny said. After all, it wasn't until recent years that eastern Wake had any effective influence on the county school board.

Nevertheless, local mayors said they harbored no hard feelings.

“I certainly was not offended or upset,” said Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen, who until 2012 was the President of the Wake County Mayor's Association.

“If this was a real effort to accomplish something, and not just a political maneuver, then I'd be upset,” he said.

“I'm pretty thick-skinned,” Matheny said.

So would they have signed it?

“I definitely did not and will not sign a sales tax increase,” Wendell Mayor Tim Hinnant said.

Added Killen: “I probably would not have signed. We do need more investment in our how we educate our children. Our schools are without a doubt underfunded.

“That said, this struck me as ... not a serious and thoughtful plan for improving how we educate our children in NC.”

While maintaining that he's undecided on the matter, Matheny said he would have considered signing it if simply given the chance.

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