Update on Annexation Legislation Progress

House Bill 845 - Annexation Reform Act of 2011, passed the Second Reading on the House Floor on Thursday May 12th! 

The Bill passed by vote of 102 for H845, and 13 voting against H845.
As Speaker, Thom Tillis did not vote on H845. 

The Legislators voting against H845 were:

Representative(s) Hugh Blackwell; Larry Brown; George Cleveland and
Representative(s): Alice Bordsen; Beverly Earle; Susan Fisher; Rosa Gill; Ken Goodman; Philip Haire; Susan Hamilton; Grier Martin; Mary Ann Mobley; Larry Womble

Not voting:
Representative(s): Keever; Hastings; Killian; McElraft
 

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H845 will now be on the House Floor Calendar for Monday evening for it's third and final reading. This will be the final House vote to pass H845 on the House side. 

H845 will be sent to the Senate for consideration after the vote on Monday.
The Senate is expected to thoroughly review the provisions of H845 and move it quickly to passage. Additional Legislation to help everyone faced with forced annexation is also expected to be brought forward in the Senate.  

The people finally have a very good piece of legislation moving through the State Legislature after all these years of asking for REAL reform of the annexation laws.

This is legislation that delivers justice and fairness to those to whom justice has been denied for half a century.

If you can make it to Raleigh to witness the passage of this Bill by the House on Monday, May 16th at 7:00 pm., please join the many others who will be there in the House Gallery.

If you cannot make that trip, please listen online from the General Assembly website:
http://www.ncleg.net

 

And write to thank all the House Legislators who voted for the Annexation Reform Act of 2011.

Especially thank the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of H845.

Thom.Tillis@ncleg.net, Speaker of the House,  

Primary Sponsors Stephen.LaRoque@ncleg.net, Nelson.Dollar@ncleg.net, Bill.Owens@ncleg.net 

Co-Sponsors David.Guice@ncleg.net, Jonathan.Jordan@ncleg.net,Tim.Moffitt@ncleg.net, Paul.Stam@ncleg.net, Edgar.Starnes@ncleg.net, Michael.Stone@ncleg.net

Find email contact information for all House Legislators at http://www.stopncannexation.com

Grassroots Action Alert!

A very good Bill has been introduced in the House to change the North Carolina Annexation laws and the window of time to get it passed in the House will close soon!
******

StopNCAnnexation supports the passage of H845 to restore the voice of the property owners. 

Email - CALL ALL House Legislators to ask them to support H845;
BEFORE it's TOO LATE!!

"Crossover" deadline for this bill to be the hands of the Senate is May 12th
 

EMAIL ALL House members

Contact information for House Members

• H845 will restore a voice to the property owners being considered for annexation
  
• H845 will give property owners relief from the costs of water and sewer infrastructure IF the annexation is successful.
  
  
• H845 will stop all annexations that are now in process and haven't reached final passage of the annexation ordinance.
  Cities across NC are rushing to annex areas before this law passes.
  If you are being annexed or oppose forced annexation,
  call and email the House Legislators today. 

 Visit http://www.stopncannexation.com for more information.

NC Annexation Laws Hailed? Many Do NOT!

You can tell the NCLM is getting desperate and are calling on their buddies at the newspapers.
The N&O went beyond the size of their typical "editorial" and gave this opinion piece lots of space:

'Many hail North Carolina annexation law'
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/27/1085023/many-hail-ncs-annexation-law.html

I faxed the following rebuttal to the News & Observer the very same day, and followed up with an email.
I wasn't holding my breath waiting for them to publish what I had to say in response.
As expected, the N&O declined to publish the counterpoint and published few LTE in response either. I'm betting they heard from plenty of people from across the State, but the paper apparently decided to ignore them.

'Many Do Not' !!

by Catherine Heath for StopNCAnnexation

The March 27th article about the debate over FORCED annexation reads like an opinion piece rather than an unbiased report on the facts behind the debate over forced annexation going on the Legislature.

Where are the quotes from the credentialed researchers and policy experts who have refuted the theory being promoted by David Rusk in his books? Who is David Rusk, other than a former Mayor of Albuquerque, NM who happens to have written some books that support the view of those promoting the creation of “City-States”? Rusk is the darling of those who oppose smaller scale local governments that are closer to and more responsive to the people they serve; a model of public choice found to be more efficient, according to the Nobel Prize winning research of Elinor Ostrom*. 

Rather than lead the reader to simply accept the opinion of Mr. Rusk as the last word on the rightness or wrongness of allowing North Carolina municipalities to force landowners into the city limits, the reader should have been given the opportunity to hear from those who have examined Mr. Rusk’s theory and found it wanting. Wendell Cox, Stephan Hayward, Randal O’Toole and Howard Husock have all quite thoroughly rebutted the theory espoused by Mr. Rusk*. To exclude the criticisms of Rusk’s theory while devoting much ink to what Rusk has to say shows the bias of the writer of the article. 

There was plenty of space to include some local policy experts like Daren Bakst and Michael Sanera at the John Locke Foundation who have published papers critical of the practice of forced annexation. Instead, the abundance of space in the article was given to the opinions of a former Mayor and to the chief lobbyist for NC municipalities. This kind of one-sidedness gives the reader the impression that the debate is settled and the published opinions are fact. 

Where are the actual facts about cities that have great credit ratings in States without FORCED annexation? They do exist, but you wouldn’t think so after reading this article. The article seems to want the reader to believe they will witness scenes of desolation straight out of an apocalyptic movie if they venture beyond the borders of NC. There are other factors that contributed to the success of NC metropolitan areas that have nothing to do with credit ratings or forced annexation.

Why does this article devote so much space to the opinions of tax funded lobbyists for the municipalities? These lobbyists have enjoyed ‘red carpet’ treatment at the GA and honed their lobbying skills in the “pay to play” culture recently exposed by scandal and Federal arrests. The citizens taking their grievances to Raleigh have witnessed the arrogance of the city lobbyists at the General Assembly. These citizens who traveled to the Legislature, time and again found themselves shut out of the debate while watching these tax funded lobbyists for the cities walk in and say “jump” with too many Legislators responding, “How high?”

Another fact missing is that the anger from citizens across the State has been ongoing for decades and has been coming from Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike. Restoring the voice for these property owners has been championed in the Legislature by both Democrats and Republicans. This is ignored in an obvious attempt to dismiss these citizens as a new phenomenon sprouting from a partisan agenda. An unbiased examination of the record and history would show the anger is as old as the law itself and goes beyond party affiliation. 

The rise of the internet has been useful to the people who have always been out there across the State in opposition to forced annexation. It is not the reason that the anger is there, it is the reason the anger is no longer invisible.  If it has taken the recent political upheaval of the General Assembly due to the recent exposure of corruption we have witnessed to open the door for these citizens to be heard, so be it. The fact that the State has made progress against “Boss Hog” style corruption in government is something that should be celebrated, not bemoaned by anyone who stands in favor of good government. 

A final note to the writer; it was excellent for you to point out that most of the annexation enabling growth to the cities in NC is done voluntarily. This fact proves the error of the claim that cities in NC would not be able to grow and stay healthy if the Legislature restored the voice of the people to the 9.6% of annexations that are now being forced upon a minority of NC’s property owners.  

Restoring a voice to these property owners would help prevent municipalities from taking in more than they can adequately serve. The law as it is today tempts city officials to grab for an immediate infusion of property tax revenue even when the long term costs that can be delayed will far outweigh the property tax revenue for many years to come. That is the economic reality that saved my neighborhood from being forcibly annexed so far. Too many cities ignore that reality because the temptation is too great. Fayetteville is an excellent example of a city biting off more than it can chew simply “because it can” with the laws we have today. 

It is time to look beyond the rhetoric and restore the checks and balances that promote good government to this segment of North Carolina law.   

Catherine Heath
Director
StopNCAnnexation Coalition
Wake Co. NC

References:
Elinor Ostrom: *http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/12812.html
Rusk refuted: *http://www.stopncannexation.com/Resources.htm 

Pt2 NC Legislative Update

N&O Editorial Attacks Efforts to End Forced Annexation.

I received an email this morning from Dallas Woodhouse of Americans for Prosperity, alerting me to the horrible editorial in the N&O attacking opposition to forced annexation. AFP has supported and helped us all on the annexation issue.

The editorial that Dallas pointed out was written in response to an excellent article published in the N&O on Tuesday after the Senate passed S27:

Annexation curbs pass Senate 

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/08/1037227/annexation-curbs-pass-senate.html

Please consider writing to the N&O in support of the Senate Moratorium Bill and to thank Lynn Bonner for the great article.lynn.bonner@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4821 

Please copy the Executive Editor of the N&O as well:

John Drescher john.drescher@newsobserver.com

 

Notice that the editorial writer is once again spouting the NC League of Municipalities 'talking points' and ignoring the fact that NC law allows VOLUNTARY annexation as well as FORCED annexation. He ignores that what we are trying to put an end to is FORCED annexation only. Is the writer ignorant of the fact that there is more than one way for cities to annex? 

Maybe he needs to learn the difference.  

The cities will be able to annex to their hearts content VOLUNTARILY even with the moratorium in place. 

Out of all the numerous unsupported "talking points' about forced annexation that the NC League of Municipalities use to use regularly during the last five decades, the only one they have left that they continue to use is the "freeloader" argument. 

People living within five miles and the money they contribute to the cities has the same positive impact that money spent in the cities by people who live fifty miles away. If city officials actually believe that "outsiders" coming into their city are having a negative impact on them, then they need to stop spending any of their resources on promoting tourism and building attractions that are designed to bring tourists into their city. 

We need the N&O to hear from Democrats, Independents and Republicans to let the Editor know that ending FORCED annexation is NOT a PARTISAN issue. The failure to get this done under the Democrats was due to the political power being in the hands of an elite few in the GA more than any other factor.

 The people who care about this issue made themselves heard at the ballot box and voted in candidates who promised to end this practice.

The Republicans now in control are willing to listen to the people on this issue and for that we are grateful.

But FORCED annexation has not been, and is not now, a PARTISAN issue. 

Many votes in the last election went to those candidates who promised to end the practice of forced annexation.

The tight-fisted control of a few people wielding power in the previous Legislative Leadership prevented Democratic Legislators who agree that forced annexation is bad from doing anything about it. The Democrat Legislators who are still in the Legislature and who have supported ending this practice, need OUR support and we need them.

People have been organizing and fighting forced annexation LONG before there was a Tea Party movement, although many in today's Tea Party movement agree that forced annexation is wrong. Many organizations believe that forced annexation is wrong, because it IS WRONG.

Please speak up and set this editor straight about who the BROAD spectrum of those opposed to forced annexation are!

Cathy

StopNCAnnexation

Annexation Moratorium Being Discussed This Week

SENATE

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING

AND

BILL SPONSOR NOTICE

The Senate Committee on Finance will meet at the following time:

                                                                                                                 

DAY	DATE	TIME	ROOM
Tuesday	March 1, 2011	1:00 PM	544 LOB

The following will be considered:

	BILL NO.	SHORT TITLE	SPONSOR
	SB 27	Involuntary Annexation Moratorium.	Senator Brock Senator Newton Senator Goolsby

Presentations by the Office of the State Treasurer

Senator Fletcher L. Hartsell, Jr., Co-Chair Senator Bob Rucho, Co-Chair

Committee Meetings This Week & a bit of News

Senate Bill 27 to be heard in Senate Finance Committee very likely on Wednesday but it has not been scheduled. 
Please check the Senate Calendar daily @
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/homePage.pl

Senate Finance Committee meets Tuesdays, Wednesdays at 1:00 PM in 544 LOB LB

IF S27 is heard in the Finance Committee on Wednesday, it is very likely to be voted on by the Senate on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, The Kinston and Lexington Annexation Ordinance Repeal Bills will be on the agenda for the House Finance Committee.

February 24 - House Finance Committee - 8:30 am - Rm 544 - Legislative Office Building
300 N. Salisbury St. Raleigh NC


I will be heading to the Outer Banks early Monday morning to be with my daughter as she welcomes her first child into the world. I will be staying with her for most of the week so I will not be attending these Committee meetings. 


Please try to attend the meetings and send me an email about how the meetings went.
I'd appreciate it. 


Thanks for fighting this fight with me!


Catherine Heath
Director
StopNCAnnexation