Happy Birthday, Tag & Tax Together!  What, you haven’t bought a present yet? Well, you best get moving, because September 1 will mark the first birthday of the new taxation system for registered motor vehicles (“RMVs”) known informally as Tag … Read more

Should private information in government hands be considered public record? What about information in the hands of private entities that are carrying out governmental functions? These two issues dominated legislative consideration of the public records and open meetings laws in … Read more

On August 20, the North Carolina General Assembly adjourned sine die (Joint Res. 2014-8). The term sine die is from the Latin “without day;” this type of resolution means that the legislature did not set a date to return to … Read more

In July John Martin, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals, announced his retirement effective August 1st. Given the timing of his decision, state law requires an election in November to fill the seat but no primary in advance … Read more

The FLSA’s Professional Duties Test – Part 1 The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires that employers pay employees a time-and-half premium wage for hours worked past 40 in a workweek. Many employees are not entitled to this premium … Read more

[UPDATE:  This post was edited in late August 2014 to reflect the General Assembly’s ratification of S734, which among other actions permits non-attorneys to represent business entities before the Property Tax Commission.] The county board of equalization and review, often called “the … Read more

Coates’ Canons celebrated its five year anniversary this week! During the past five years, School of Government faculty members have authored over 680 posts, which have been viewed well over 1,000,000 times. We continually strive to improve the blog and … Read more

An impact fee is a charge on new development to pay for the construction or expansion of off-site capital improvements that are necessitated by and/or benefit the new development. A local government typically assesses impact fees as part of its … Read more

There are two distinct ways to cast your ballot in person in North Carolina. The first is traditional election-day voting at your assigned precinct polling place. The other is what has commonly come to be called early voting at one … Read more

This is the second of two posts on the regulation of electronic cigarettes and other vapor products in North Carolina. Part 1 addressed federal and state regulation. Now it’s time to talk about local regulation. This post focuses specifically on … Read more