The Sullivan acts were upheld by the state Court of Appeals today. The City of Asheville had been contending that the laws are unfair. The acts state that Asheville and no other water authority in the state is not allowed to charge higher rates for customers outside the city limits. They also require Asheville and only Asheville to use water revenues exclusively for water department functions and Asheville and only Asheville to refrain from using water as an incentive for voluntary annexation. Sullivan acts II and III help developers build just outside the city limits on the cheap. Representative Charles Thomas, who succeeded cosponsor Wilma Sherrill, maintains, essentially, that Asheville’s governing body is too juvenile to be trusted with running its own water system.