Last year the General Assembly enacted Session Law 2018-69 (An Act to Assist the Criminal Law Recodification Working Group).  The Act directed the State’s counties, municipalities, and metropolitan sewerage districts to submit lists of their criminally enforceable ordinances to two … Read more

Downtown Durham is hot.  Millions of square feet of new and renovated residential and commercial properties hit the market this year, including luxury condos atop the city’s new tallest building. By mid-2020, the number of downtown apartments will have more than … Read more

For those not familiar with Chapter 22B of the North Carolina General Statutes, this Chapter prohibits certain contract provisions by making those provisions void and unenforceable as a matter of public policy. The restrictions in Chapter 22B apply to all … Read more

Pardon the pun, but I couldn’t resist that title for a blog post on the subject of property tax interest.  Usually when we think of interest we think of the additional amount owed by taxpayers who fail to pay their … Read more

Elected officials, law enforcement officers, tax collectors, zoning inspectors and other public officials sometimes face lawsuits over decisions they have made or actions they have taken. To prevent the fear of lawsuits from unduly influencing the judgment of public officials, … Read more

North Carolina law says: The public records and public information compiled by the agencies of North Carolina government or its subdivisions are the property of the people. (GS 132-1(b))This powerful commitment to transparency wouldn’t mean much if the custodians of … Read more

If property is under construction, is it being “used” by its owner? That is the arcane but important question that the North Carolina Court of Appeals recently addressed in the Highwater Solar appeal concerning the 80% property tax exclusion available … Read more

The national trend towards consolidation of the healthcare industry under large providers is very evident across our state. Be it the purchase of western Carolina’s largest non-profit hospital system by an even larger healthcare provider or the continued expansion of … Read more

In July Chris McLaughlin and I hosted a webinar on the topic of STR regulation and occupancy taxes (available here). We have also written a manual for local governments on these topics, which we hope will be available to readers … Read more

[UPDATE 2/2020: Adopting reasoning similar to mine below, in March 2019 the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board rejected the 2018 ethics report and recommendation and concluded that Baldwin violated the attorney-client privilege held by the three Penn State executives. The Disciplinary Board … Read more

Three times in the past five years North Carolina appellate courts and administrative bodies have wrestled with the question of how to define inventory for purposes of the property tax exclusion created by G.S. 105-,275(34). In the first two cases, … Read more

Under the North Carolina public records law, government records are subject to public access unless an exception says they’re not. The law’s broad definition of “public records,” as interpreted by the courts, covers any record, regardless of format, made or … Read more

Social media has become a regular feature of the political landscape. From the campaign to the business of governing, elected and appointed public officials are getting their message out on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. And they’re encouraging … Read more

The candidate who appeared to win the election in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional district has not been officially declared the winner.  He has not taken his seat in Congress.  And the state elections board that might declare him the winner has … Read more

The open meetings law mandates that public bodies keep “full and accurate” minutes of their official meetings. G.S. 143-318.10(e). Separate statutes expressly require “full and accurate” minutes for meetings of city councils and boards of county commissioners. G.S. 153A-42 (boards … Read more

The North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) returned to Raleigh last week to kick off the 2019-2020 biennium. Here at the School of Government, we are excited to announce that all of the legislative digests prepared by the staff at our … Read more

Ernie Bass owns a sizable parcel of vacant land on the edge of Mayberry that fronts a major road.  He hunted and fished there for decades.  The Mayberry bypass was recently completed on the edge of the property and an … Read more

What percentage of North Carolina cities and towns rely on their counties for the collection of municipal property taxes? 60%? 80%? I don’t know the exact figure, but I’m certain it’s much closer to 100% than it is to 0%.  … Read more

I stumbled across a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that read: Airbnb ‘furniture tax’ generates $120,000 for San Francisco. The article explains that the city requires hosts on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites to tally the contents of … Read more

North Carolina communities face the ongoing and complex challenge of the opioid epidemic. One tool for addressing the public health harms related to opioid use is the implementation of syringe exchange programs. Legalized in North Carolina in 2016, syringe exchange … Read more