Article VII, sec. 1 of the North Carolina Constitution gives the General Assembly almost unlimited power to create local governments, and to define, expand, and limit their authority. Does this power allow the legislature, by local act, to require the … Read more

[Update: The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed this decision in Asheville v. State. Read about the Supreme Court decision in a blog post here.] In 2013 the North Carolina General Assembly enacted a law (S.L. 2013-50) that requires the city of … Read more

UPDATE August 2013: A new statute, G.S. 105-380, requires a municipality to release property tax liability for any deannexed property that was within the town limits for six months or less before being deannexed, if no notice has been sent … Read more

In a prior blog post I wrote about the patchwork of local and general laws that collectively define local government authority. I noted that it can be difficult to determine when a general law does or does not override an … Read more

Students of local government law learn first and foremost that all local governments get their powers from the state. In North Carolina, local authority comes primarily from local and general laws enacted by the General Assembly. A particular city may … Read more