Counties score several victories in 2008 session

• 2008 legislative bulletins
• State budget: Analysis | President's Perspective

On the heels of a 2007 legislative session that saw counties and the state agree on a plan to phase counties out of financing Medicaid services, the Association expected to be playing a lot of defense during the 2008 short session.

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of county officials across the state and legislators who heard and acted on those appeals, several attacks on the county property tax base and local autonomy were stopped short of the goal line.

In addition, a handful of items became law that will allow counties to better finance necessary infrastructure repairs and improvements, fund county programs, and serve citizens.

The passage of the state budget, summarized in the July issue of CountyLines, relieved a number of county concerns, including recurring funding for the Criminal Justice Partnership Program and Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils, removal of a mandate that shifted the funding of courthouse telephone systems to counties, and additional funding for mental health services.

During the session’s final hectic weeks, the Association helped turn back efforts to repeal the land transfer tax authority that was given to counties last session, to repeal the state’s ban on collective bargaining for public employees and to eliminate a county’s ability to enact a building moratorium so that it could update existing land codes or adopt new ones.

In the waning days of the session, a bill was passed to achieve an Association legislative goal regarding the cleanup of abandoned manufactured homes. H1134 provides counties that choose to run a program the necessary resources to clean up abandoned manufactured homes by earmarking $1 million annually from the Solid Waste Management Trust Fund. Reimbursement grants to counties that choose to participate cannot exceed $1,000 for each unit, although counties that are designated as Tier 1 or Tier 2 can receive additional matching grants if costs exceed $1,000.

High-growth counties were given new authority to finance infrastructure needs. H1770 (Future Conveyances/Special Assessments) includes a new Article 9A, “Special Assessments for Critical Infrastructure Needs.” This article enables a city or county to finance any of several capital needs – sanitary sewer systems; storm sewers and flood control facilities; water systems; public transportation facilities; school facilities; or streets and sidewalks – through revenue bonds that will be paid by issuing special assessments on the affected properties.

To impose a special assessment, the board of commissioners must receive a petition for the project to be financed by the assessment signed by at least a majority of the owners of real property to be assessed. Those owners must represent at least 66 percent of the assessed value of all real property to be assessed.

The House concurred with Senate changes to H1889 (Present-Use Value System Modifications) to create a new property tax deferral program for landowners who manage their land for wildlife conservation purposes. Qualifying land must consist of at least 20 contiguous acres and no more than 100 acres and must be owned by the same owner for the previous five years. According to the legislation, “the land must be managed under a written wildlife habitat conservation agreement with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.” The land must “protect an animal species that lives on the land and … is on a North Carolina protected animal list published by the Commission under G.S. 113-333” or “conserve any of the following priority animal wildlife habitats: longleaf pine forest, early successional habitat, small wetland community, stream and riparian zone, rock outcrop, or bat cave.”

The NCACC worked with the stakeholders to narrow the intrusion into the local property tax base significantly from what was contained in earlier versions.

Just days before adjournment, the House and Senate reached a consensus on changes to a bill that would impact when a county must reappraise its real property. When S1878 (Property Tax Modifications) was passed by the Senate, it required counties to reappraise their property when their sales/assess ratio reached .90 or was above 1.10. The House modified the trigger on the sales/assess ratio to less than .70 or greater than 1.10.

The conference report approved by the House and Senate changed the trigger to when the sales/assess ratio is lower than .85 or greater than 1.15, but only for counties with populations of 75,000 or greater. Counties with populations of less than 75,000 would still be required to perform a revaluation at least once every eight years.

The Association had sought a six-month delay in the $2 per ton tipping tax that was included in the landfill legislation that passed in 2007. The General Assembly did not grant the delay, but H2530 did include several improvements that were favorable to counties. It changes the schedule for counties to remit the tax to a quarterly basis and also allows counties to receive a credit for bad debts in the event that an operator does not pay its account balance. The bill also clarifies that local governments that do not operate solid waste programs are not eligible to receive any funds from the tax “unless it is served by a regional solid waste management authority established under Article 22 of Chapter 153A of the General Statutes.”