The Joint Study Commission on Municipal Annexation met for the first time yesterday.  The Commission was set up by the General Assembly in their annual studies bill and charged with looking at North Carolina’s laws that allow cities to forcibly annex property owners without their consent.

At this first meeting David Lawrence, from the UNC-CH School of Government presented an overview of current Nortth Carolina annexation law.  Lawrence gave the commission some annexation history, talked about basic principles of annexation laws, the standards, city service requirements and legal challenges to annexations. 

All very interesting stuff but the most telling part of the meeting was (as is usually the case) the Commission members’ questions, discussion and comments.  Their comments give us an indication of where the biggest concerns are and where changes in the law may occurr.

Here is a list of those questions and comments from yesterday’s meeting with some of my notes:

How many active anti-annexation groups are there now?  No one could answer this but judging from the packed room of folks in red shirts, there are alot.

How many states allow forced annexation?  Lawrence said he?d never seen numbers he felt like he could rely on but estimates between 6 to 10.  Anyway you look at it, it?s just a few.

The state (including legislators) has no knowledge of a municipal annexation until it is done.

The general public does not understand their rights. The commission needs to address making sure that people understand the process and their rights.

Can staff conduct an analysis of the 1957 study committee?s recommendations and what actually resulted in the annexation laws that were enacted in 1959?

Do the 1959 laws need to be re-written?  Considerations:  there was no sales tax until 1970s, have the size of cities and population density changed in fifty years?  Do the thresholds determining urbanization set up in 1959 need to be re-visited?

How has the population of NC grown since the laws were enacted in 1959?  About doubled ? from 4.9 million in 1959 to 9 million in 2007

Revenue stream changes from county to city coffers.  Who?s left holding the bag?  Since the initiation of the sales tax in the 1970?s how much revenue have counties lost to cities through annexation? What has the impact been on building schools?

Concerns about the loss of revenue to counties, particularly with the impact on school constructions funds and social services, which are in greater demand during the economic downturn.  How are counties supposed to make up the revenue?

What is the scope of the local government commission?  During the depression most cites and counties in NC went into default so the state took over most responsibilities, i.e. building roads and education.  The LGCs were set up to monitor the finances of local governments as some responsibilities were returned to them. Over the years they have assumed additional powers but they exist mainly to monitor local governments? finances and are administered through the state treasurer?s office. They have no authority over municipal annexations.

How can the commission fix the doughnut holes?  (Cutout areas that are excluded from annexation ? usually low-income areas that cost a lot to provide service and don?t provide much revenue ? cities tend to annex around them)

Who monitors completion of services provided?  No one.  If citizens are unhappy, they can go to court.

How do cities fund water and sewer? Almost all do it through user fees (aka enterprise funds) and not general revenue funds

What about partial subdivision annexations where services are provided by the city on one side of the street and the county on the other?  Hasn?t work well.

Are North Carolina cites annexing too fast?  Of note:  Between 1990 and 1999, 319,000 annexations took place in NC; the average across the country was 40,000.  Can they provide infrastructure as fast as they are annexing?  If cities can?t keep up and provide services to their citizens, should they have to re-pay the taxes those citizens have paid?  Could we look at situations where infrastructure was not in place with in 5 years and propose solutions?

Could you pro-rate taxes based on how many services the annexed citizens actually received?  Some constitutional concerns here.

What about setting up a legislative committee that would approve or disapprove all annexations?

What exactly are the rights of a homeowner in a forced annexation?  They seem to have no real leverage in NC. Here?s the process:  homeowner is mailed a notice from the annexing city; city holds a public information meeting; city holds a public hearing; annexation takes place.  It the homeowner doesn?t like it, they can petition the Superior Court to determine of the annexation is legal.
        
What rights do annexed homeowners have in other states?  Some states allow affected homeowners to vote on whether they want to be annexed.

Some municipalities (mostly the larger ones) have annexation plans years in advance so home buyers and owners are aware that they will be annexed and when.  Are those annexations considered involuntary?

What is the counties? role?  None.  The city has to provide a report to the county but it is purely informational.  

Is there authority for cross county line annexations?  Yes.

Local governments have great authority.  Some are aggressive and some are conservative.  Are we better off than other states with this law?

And the final point:  
We need to look at the basic principles of democracy that are being violated. 

The next meeting will be December 17 at 9:30 am at a location at the General Assembly to be determined.  Check here for posting of the meeting details.