A House committee is tangling over the contentious annexation issue today.
More than 50 bills have been filed on the issue in both chambers this session. On Thursday, more than 100 people packed into a small committee room to see the blended bill before the House committee.
The proposal is actually a combination of three House bills.
North Carolina allows involuntary or forced annexation in which property owners can be annexed into a city or town against their will. The idea is to allow cities to regulate growth.
The effect is that plenty of people are mad as heck about being told they will have to pay thousands of dollars in taxes and fees for municipal services they didn't want in the first place.
Annexation opponents, wearing the signature red shirts packed the committee room Thursday morning. Debate on the bill is expected this afternoon.
More after the jump.
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Among many changes, the bill would give a city or town three years to connect newly annex properties to water and sewer lines. If the municipality misses the deadline, it would have to stop collecting taxes from the new property.
Municipalities would have to demonstrate to the Local Government Commission, which approves muncipal debts, that it could afford to provide services to the annexed property.
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Re: Annexation bills blended
Of course you haven't and I didn't mean to imply that you would. However, you do visit them using streets, protected by emergency services within the town/cit. Both of which are paid for with municipal tax dollars. My other point doesn't have so much to do with money. Rather, do people generally think that this development would pop up near where they live without the municipality? Best Buy, the mall, etc. don't locate in the middle of nothing. Also, municipalities bring in employment. Don't get me wrong...I'm not a "develop for the municipalities" zealot but people need to keep in mind that without them their life would be a lot different (maybe not entirely for the worse :-)).