When property tax geeks like me hear the term “discovery,” our minds don’t usually leap to Marie Curie and the theory of radioactivity or Indiana Jones and the Ark of the Covenant. No, we property tax geeks  dream about more … Read more

Municipalities across North Carolina have long employed code enforcement tools to address problem properties and abandoned structures. A prior blog post describes the code enforcement options for repair and maintenance of commercial buildings. A book on housing codes describes the … Read more

Every once in a while, the North Carolina appellate courts put forward a totally new interpretation of some aspect of the law of employment, an interpretation that has the potential to change the way employers act. It happened in 1985 … Read more

The North Carolina open meetings law requires public bodies to prepare minutes of all official meetings, and to prepare minutes and general accounts of closed sessions. G.S. 143-318.10(e).  Minutes and general accounts of closed sessions may be withheld from public … Read more

UPDATED August 2018: The legislature made a few changes to the System Development Fee law during the 2018 legislative session (S.L. 2018-34). For information on those changes, click here. Local governments and public authorities (collectively, local units) that own or … Read more

In a North Carolina town, a long-vacant historic mill with environmental contamination has sat empty on the edge of downtown for years. The Town has taken action to see the property transformed. Town staff worked through a brownfields process to … Read more

Consider the following scenario: Target is challenging a city’s property tax valuation. The city has assessed the store at $16.7 million, while Target contends the tax value is closer to $8.1 million. In reaching this valuation, Target used sales comps … Read more

Carolina County is selling Parcel A at a tax foreclosure sale.  The county enters an opening bid of $4,500, the total taxes and costs owed on the property.  Happily for the county, two other bidders, Billy Blue Devil and Wanda … Read more

Whether you attend classes at the UNC School of Government, consult with our faculty, or use our books and blogs—we exist because of you. Today is a special day because we’re spending 24 hours celebrating the University, the School, and … Read more

In response to the latest school shooting, local school boards are reviewing and revising their policies and procedures for responding to incidents of school violence. Responses to these incidents increasingly require coordination among multiple jurisdictions. Discussions about these issues may … Read more

[This post is co-authored with my colleague, Margaret Henderson] In 2017, the North Carolina General Assembly established the Social Services Regional Supervision and Collaboration Working Group (SSWG) and directed it to develop recommendations related to the social services system (see … Read more

The preaudit is a statutory internal control process to ensure that public funds are spent appropriately. If implemented properly the preaudit can be an effective tool in preventing and/or mitigating employee mistake, misappropriation, and even fraud. The problem with the … Read more

UPDATE 2021: Some statutory provisions referenced in the original post were relocated to new Chapter 160D of the North Carolina General Statutes, effective January 1, 2021. This post has been updated with the new statutory references. The downtown buildings in … Read more

[Note: this post has been superseded by the Court of Appeals decision discussed in this newer post.] Loyal readers of this blog know that most property tax exemptions and exclusions require that property be used for exempt purposes to avoid … Read more

Picture this: You’re the attorney for a small town that is not commonly visited by tourists. There are only about five short term rental properties in your jurisdiction listed on Airbnb. One of these rental properties is in a quiet … Read more

Most of us know that Airbnb is popular, but how big is it really? Well, the statistics are mind-boggling. Airbnb is currently valued at $31 billion. By mid-2017, it had 4 million listings in 191 countries worldwide, which surpassed the … Read more

Local government tax offices do a lot more these days than collect property taxes.  Many local tax officials are charged with collecting a variety of other taxes (occupancy, beer and wine, or animal taxes, perhaps) and fees (EMS, nuisance abatement, … Read more

[UPDATE: The 2018 budget bill included a provision that applies the “weekend & holiday” rule to extend payment deadlines when a county is the subject of a state disaster declaration by the governor and the county tax offices are closed. … Read more

The recent federal tax bill signed by the president last week caps the deductions for state and local taxes at $10,000 beginning with the 2018 tax year. This major change is prompting many North Carolina taxpayers to prepay their 2018 local … Read more

You’ve requested copies of city documents that you believe to be public records. The city has refused to provide them, saying that they are confidential. You file a lawsuit under G.S. 132-9 to obtain access to the records. You are … Read more