Yesterday, the Joint Legislative Study Commission on Municipal Annexation met again.  The turnout was incredible–the meeting was standing room only.

Here’s a great summary of the meeting from the Salisbury Post.

Most commission members (and certainly the public) understand the major reforms that are needed.

1) Meaningful services must be required before a municipality may
annex.  This means municipalities can’t annex if it is simply
duplicating services an area already has, providing services areas
don’t need, etc.  One “game” that municipalities try to play is
justifying an annexation by providing more of a service, like a few
extra police officers, even though existing police protection is
fine.  This abuse should be prohibited.

This reform is common sense.  Imagine the other side of the
argument: Municipalities should be able to provide meaningless services
and still annex an area.

2) They understand that there needs to be oversight over municipalities
by an independent third party, preferably by county commissions. 
The county commissioners represent both the affected property owners
and the cities, and are accountable to both.  County commissions,
unlike some state body, should be better informed about the needs of
the overall community.

As of now, if a forced annexation is bad for a community, there is
nothing to stop the annexation from going forward.  If the forced
annexation would hurt city residents such as through higher taxes,
nothing can be done. 

Oversight is simply another way of
saying there needs to be checks and balances–the idea of allowing any
governmental unit to do almost anything it wants, which the current law
allows, is counter to the principles of the state and federal
constitutions (and good government).

3) Finally they also understand that there needs to be some form of vote for all the affected property owners.

The next and likely final Commission meeting is on January
22nd.   They will likely provide some recommendations for the
legislature, and maybe a draft bill.