[Update 2: See my October 31 post for information about the law of isolation and quarantine in North Carolina, and for resources for more information about the 2014 Ebola epidemic.] [Update: On September 30, the CDC announced that a case of Ebola … Read more

What does it mean for local government tax collectors when debtors surrender property in bankruptcy proceedings? Great question! Let’s see what the band Cheap Trick has to say on this topic:   Mommy’s alright, Daddy’s alright, they just seem a … Read more

The General Assembly’s enactment of Session Law 2014-3 will eventually result in the elimination of nearly all local privilege license taxes. (My colleague Chris McLaughlin has blogged about the impact of S.L. 2014-3 on local governments here and here.) School … Read more

The tax status of real and personal property owned or used by charitable non-profit organizations can get complicated when there are multiple private and public entities involved with the property.  Is property exempt if it is owned by a non-profit organization … Read more

[Update: Legislation clarifying the status of vehicle and body-worn camera recordings under the North Carolina public records law was enacted in July, 2016. The law is summarized in a blog post here.] “We may have reached the point where video technology … Read more

North Carolina local governments have a new partner in their economic development efforts. Session Law 2014-18 authorizes the North Carolina Department of Commerce to enter into a contract with a nonprofit entity in order to carry out many of the … Read more

When the city council or county commission considers a rezoning or zoning ordinance amendment the board must approve a statement about the amendment’s consistency with adopted plans and public interest. According to the statute “[t]hat statement is not subject to … Read more

Extended families residing together were commonplace in the early 20th century at the outset of zoning regulation in the U.S. In the 1920s most earlyzoning ordinances allowed rooms in single family homes to be rented to boarders. It was also … Read more

This is the final post in my series about exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s requirement that employees be paid a premium time-and-one-half overtime wage for hours over 40 in a workweek. There are three types of exemptions: the … Read more

The General Assembly expanded the categories of allowable expenditures for a county’s solid waste fee proceeds in the 2014 technical corrections act, S.L. 2014-115 (HB 1133). Specifically, section 60 added a new provision to G.S. 153A-292 (section b1) that states … Read more