And not a moment too soon.
The 2004 constitutional amendment which legalized non-voter approved public debt, known as tax-increment financing, is under legal attack. The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law is backing a suit charging that Amendment One was poorly worded, deceptive, and violates due process protections.
Local governments across the state, including Charlotte and Kannapolis, have rushed to cook up TIF debt deals worth millions. The ultimate drawback to these plans, as we’ve noted repeatedly, is that they take property tax revenue out of the stream which funds basic government services and seers the money toward special interest development projects instead.
