A 1% tax increase seems incredibly small compared to the 100% tax increases forced on county residents all over this state by forced annexation.
Isn't it time "our" legislators had An Honest Discussion about Annexation Reform?
Unfortunately the long-running "cities cannot grow without forced annexation" mantra by the League of Municipalities begins on a foundation of misrepresentation. It is false to speak as if the citizens asking for reform are proposing to put an end to annexation by cities. An honest discussion cannot begin with a false
premise.
The citizens seeking reform want the legislature to reform a small subset of the annexation powers of the cities. Cities can
annex to their hearts content, but put an end to the acknowledged abuses of taxpaying property owners who are victimized by forced annexation.
Forced annexation by cities represents less than 20 percent of all the annexations by NC cities. No one is proposing to restrict anything in the
law regarding the over 80 percent of annexations into cities that are accomplished voluntarily by property owners.
The historical facts regarding annexations initiated by cities, rather than the property owners, before the cities were given the power to forcibly
annex in 1959, show that in 60% of the annexations proposed by the city to property owners, the property owners said yes.
The truth about the discussion to reform the annexation laws is that meaningful reform would protect property owners from municipal abuse that
might result in less than a 5% reduction in successful annexations of land into municipalities.
The robust Regional Economies of the State consist of diverse types of land use and a variety of levels of government that are much more effective than
a monolithic municipal government.
Health, safety, and other amenities like streets, parks, libraries, courts and records, sheriffs, water & sewer infrastructure are paid for by all
citizens of this State, not just municipal residents. State and Federal tax dollars flow into municipal coffers and no one outside the cities is
complaining.
Twenty acre farms are not developed to "municipal standards" yet they are routinely included in forced annexations.
Sales tax distribution varies by county and is barely relevant to the annexation reform discussion.
The "20 point plan" proposed by the city lobbyists achieve nothing meaningful to address the abuses acknowledged by the recent legislative
study. Fifty years ago the legislators delegated a unilateral power to the cities and it is now abundantly clear that checks and balances to this power
and oversight is needed by inserting the voice of the local County Government to represent all of their constituents affected by forced
annexations.
Establishing oversight, requiring that meaningful services are needed and delivered, and restoring the right to have a vote in ALL forms of annexation
versus a miniscule reduction in the galloping rate of annexation by NC cities is worth it.
Senator Shaw's Senate Bill 494 and House Bill 645 are the only bills that bring meaningful reforms to the table.
How shameful for anyone who has ever been elected to office by a vote of the people to lobby against people having their vote restored on an issue that
affects them directly through taxation and regulation. And to do it by misrepresenting the truth about the debate is more than shameful.
Any yet some of the media, legislators, and general public continue to believe the entirely false information published by The League and city officials.