Articles in the Hendersonville Times-News and the Asheville Citizen-Times today, about the changes to state annexation law made by H845 and local bills, are replete with justifications for the opposition that have the appearance of a bad attempt to deceive ignorant masses into thinking there are only stupid reasons to challenge them:
-
[Hendersonville] Mayor Barbara Volk, who said she has not read the entire bill but has been kept up to date by the League of Municipalities, said what happens in the future remains to be seen. . . . It is a short-sighted bill and in the long term will be detrimental.”
-
[Fletcher] Town Manager Mark Biberdorf said, “We are concerned on how far this bill reached in law. It made such big changes that it has made it difficult for towns to consider annexation to help growth and share the cost of services so residents would benefit.”
-
Biberdorf said the Town Council wanted to annex much of U.S. 25 in Fletcher so they could help plan future land use.
-
[Biberdorf continued,] “Does the revenue from annexations help? It does. It helps spread the cost of expanding services.”
-
“North Carolina, historically, has had reasonable tax rates,” [Biberdorf] said. “That is because of annexation. States without the ability to annex have generally higher tax rates.”
-
Proponents of involuntary annexation say they prevent bad growth patterns where wealthy suburbs seeking to avoid city taxes ring poor urban cores. Some say it’s unfair to allow property owners in urbanized areas to take advantage of city services such as streets and parks without helping to pay for them.
