Notice and Hearing Requirements for Economic Development Appropriations

Economic development appropriations pursuant to G.S. 158-7.1 have long required a properly-noticed public hearing prior to approval. When the appropriations involve business location incentives, the notice and hearing requirements take on constitutional significance as a result of North Carolina Supreme Court case law. In 2015, the General Assembly imposed additional notice and hearing requirements, mandating a public hearing for any economic development appropriation. The General Assembly modified the requirement again in 2019. This post offers guidance for understanding and complying with current notice and hearing requirements under G.S. 158-7.1. Read more »

School of Government Survey

To better document our impact, the School of Government is inviting anyone who has used our services to participate in a short survey. We want to hear about your experiences with the School and learn how we can better serve you in the future. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete, and all responses are anonymous. Thank you in advance for your time, and we look forward to your feedback. Please complete your responses by Friday November 22, 2019.

If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact Sarah Mye at smye@sog.unc.edu.

BIG NEWS: S.L. 2019-245 Creates a New Universal Mandated Reporting Law for Child Victims of Crimes and Changes the Definition of “Caretaker”

An Act to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and to Strengthen and Modernize Sexual Assault Laws, S.L. 2019-245 (S199) enacts and amends various laws related to crimes;* amends some civil and criminal statutes of limitations; requires mandatory training for school personnel addressing child sex abuse and trafficking; amends the definition of “caretaker” as it relates to child abuse, neglect, or dependency; and creates a new universal mandatory reporting law for child victims of certain crimes.

This post discusses

• the amendment to the definition of caretaker and
• the new mandatory reporting law, which requires any adult to make a report to law enforcement when a juvenile is a victim of certain crimes.

Read more »

Sales Tax 101 for Local Governments

I don’t write or teach much about sales taxes, because my colleagues and I here at the School of Government focus on local government issues.  Sales taxes are, for the most part, a state government issue.  The state of North Carolina receives all of the revenue from the base 4.25% sales tax and bears all of the responsibility for its collection.

That said, all 100 counties have adopted “local option” sales taxes of 2%, with some counties adopting an additional .25-.75%. As my colleague Kara Millonzi describes here, the roughly $3 billion in annual revenue from these local option sales taxes are shared between the cities and counties in which the taxable sales occurred. But even for these local option sales taxes, the collection responsibility falls entirely on the state and not the local governments.

The one sales tax issue on which I frequently get questions from local governments concerns their liability to pay or charge sales taxes on their own purchases and sales.  The N.C. Department of Revenue (the “DOR”) recently released updated guidance on this issue, along with many others, in its Sales and Use Tax Bulletin (June 2019)(the “SUTB”). This blog summarizes what local governments need to know about the SUTB and about sales taxes in general.

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Who Appoints City and County Clerks?

State law requires every city and every board of county commissioners to designate a clerk.  The law is clear with respect to who appoints the clerk to the board of county commissioners.  When it comes to appointment of city clerks, the law is less straightforward. Read more »

City of Albemarle v. Nance: Mountain or Molehill?

This past July the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued an opinion that has provoked a wide variety of responses from local government attorneys.  Some fear that the opinion might require local governments across the state to completely revamp how they exercise many corporate powers.  Others are less concerned and believe that the opinion is so narrow that it will have only minor effects on a handful of local governments.  Read on to learn why the case is causing such disparate reactions . . . Read more »

The New Overtime Rule is Here and Effective January 1, 2020

On Tuesday, September 25, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor released the final rule raising the minimum salary an employee must make to be exempt from overtime and, as a result, making more salaried employee eligible for overtime compensation. The rule may be found here. The changes to the rule closely track the proposed rule published last March. The most significant change is, as expected, an increase in the amount an employee must earn to qualify for exempt status. It increases from the current $455 per week to $684 per week –on an annual basis, that’s an increase from $23,600 to $35,568. The new salary minimum will be effective January 1, 2020. Read more »