Protecting Private Property Rights: Involuntary
Annexation
07/25/2008 | 04:44 PM
Prepared by Rep. Nelson Dollar,
District 36
North Carolina is one of only four states which allow property to be involuntary annexed by a city without meaningful consultation with property owners. Tremendous growth in recent decades has caused the issue to become more and more contentious. In many instances cities have involuntarily annexed high-value neighborhoods in order to boost municipal revenues. Research shows tax increases ranging from 60 percent to more than 100 percent for properties brought into municipalities through involuntary annexation. Current law provides citizens with very limited recourse when their land and homes are about to be involuntarily annexed. Homeowners are relegated to speaking before a city or town council made up of members not answerable to them.
Tens of thousands of homeowners have been speaking out demanding a real voice in the process and seeking reform of involuntary annexation.
The House Select Committee on Municipal Annexation proposed a temporary one-year moratorium on involuntary annexation to allow time for further study with a goal of enacting reforms in 2009. The Moratorium, HB 2367, passed with a large margin in the Finance Committee, but was weakened in the Judiciary II Committee. After a hard fought and successful effort to restore teeth to the bill, the Moratorium passed overwhelmingly in the House. When it arrived in the Senate, Senator Tony Rand, Democrat Majority Leader, assigned the bill to his Rules Committee and declared it dead.
Republicans are committed to reform of North Carolina’s involuntary annexation laws. Cities need to be able to plan for orderly growth, close doughnut holes and extend city services to serve urban areas of development on their borders; nevertheless, homeowners must have a real voice in the process when a city reaches out to take them in by force. North Carolina law totally ignores the rights of these citizens. We need to reform and modernize the law to allow for a proper balance between allowing cities to grow and protecting the rights of our citizens.
Republicans in the General Assembly are determined to fight to protect private property rights including reform of North Carolina’s annexation laws and enacting protections when local governments seek to take private property through the use of Eminent Domain. Annexation is a taxing issue and Eminent Domain is a takings issue. Both need reform to protect the property rights of our fellow citizens.
The following are votes on the Floor of the House: Second Reading, the Goforth Amendment to restore the Bill after it was gutted in the committee process, and Third Reading on the Bill. The Goforth Amendment was the key vote on this Bill.
North Carolina is one of only four states which allow property to be involuntary annexed by a city without meaningful consultation with property owners. Tremendous growth in recent decades has caused the issue to become more and more contentious. In many instances cities have involuntarily annexed high-value neighborhoods in order to boost municipal revenues. Research shows tax increases ranging from 60 percent to more than 100 percent for properties brought into municipalities through involuntary annexation. Current law provides citizens with very limited recourse when their land and homes are about to be involuntarily annexed. Homeowners are relegated to speaking before a city or town council made up of members not answerable to them.
Tens of thousands of homeowners have been speaking out demanding a real voice in the process and seeking reform of involuntary annexation.
The House Select Committee on Municipal Annexation proposed a temporary one-year moratorium on involuntary annexation to allow time for further study with a goal of enacting reforms in 2009. The Moratorium, HB 2367, passed with a large margin in the Finance Committee, but was weakened in the Judiciary II Committee. After a hard fought and successful effort to restore teeth to the bill, the Moratorium passed overwhelmingly in the House. When it arrived in the Senate, Senator Tony Rand, Democrat Majority Leader, assigned the bill to his Rules Committee and declared it dead.
Republicans are committed to reform of North Carolina’s involuntary annexation laws. Cities need to be able to plan for orderly growth, close doughnut holes and extend city services to serve urban areas of development on their borders; nevertheless, homeowners must have a real voice in the process when a city reaches out to take them in by force. North Carolina law totally ignores the rights of these citizens. We need to reform and modernize the law to allow for a proper balance between allowing cities to grow and protecting the rights of our citizens.
Republicans in the General Assembly are determined to fight to protect private property rights including reform of North Carolina’s annexation laws and enacting protections when local governments seek to take private property through the use of Eminent Domain. Annexation is a taxing issue and Eminent Domain is a takings issue. Both need reform to protect the property rights of our fellow citizens.
The following are votes on the Floor of the House: Second Reading, the Goforth Amendment to restore the Bill after it was gutted in the committee process, and Third Reading on the Bill. The Goforth Amendment was the key vote on this Bill.