Tribal Casinos and Property Taxes

UPDATE:  S.L. 2015-262 now excludes  from local property taxes all property sited on land held in trust for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, effective for the 2016 tax year and beyond.

Gambling is a big business in North Carolina, and it’s about to get bigger.  

With more than 1,100 hotel rooms, 3,800 slot machines, and 150,000 square feet of gambling space, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort is one of the twenty largest casinos in the world.  Operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the complex attracted 3 million visitors and generated over $500 million in gambling revenue in 2013.

Later this year, the Cherokee will open another casino on tribal land outside of Murphy, North Carolina.  The new casino will be only about half the size of the Cherokee facility, but that still means 1,200 slot machines and 300-plus hotel rooms.

Other tribes may soon get in on the action.  The Catawba Indian Nation is seeking federal and state permission to build a huge casino just outside of Charlotte that would be 50% larger than Harrah’s Cherokee Resort.  In eastern North Carolina, the Lumbees continue to work toward federal recognition that could open the door for tribal casinos along I-95.

There’s obviously money to be made here both for the tribes and for the state, which takes a slice of the gambling proceeds.  How about local governments? They don’t get a cut of the gambling money, but there’s a heck of a lot of property value in these casinos.  Can local governments at least benefit from increased property tax revenues? Read more »

Gearing Up For The 2015-16 Legislative Session

It’s that time of year again. The newly-elected legislators are settling into their offices, committee chairs are being appointed and committees are being assigned, lobbyists are bustling about Jones Street, and policy priorities are beginning to take shape or emerge. While the North Carolina General Assembly officially returned to work on January 14 for an “organizing session,” the body quickly adjourned with a plan to return this coming Wednesday, January 28. Typically, the legislative activity in the early weeks of the biennium’s long session is a little slow but the speed often begins to pick up in late February.

Interested in a preview of a few of the new faces at the General Assembly? Or of some of the bills in the pipeline that may be of interest to local government? Or information about how to renew your subscription to the School’s Legislative Reporting Service (LRS)? Or do you simply want a sneak peek at the LRS summary of the new eminent domain bill? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, please read on… Read more »

Statutory Permission to Take Up Items Not on the Special Meeting Notice

The Mayor of Transparent City has called a special meeting to allow the city council to designate an interim manager following the former manager’s unexpected departure. In accordance with the open meetings law, the clerk posts a notice stating the time, location, and purpose of the meeting on the council’s bulletin board 48 hours before the meeting. She also e-mails the notice to individuals and media representatives on the council’s “Sunshine List” 48 hours in advance and posts the notice on the city’s website prior to the meeting’s start time.

The mayor has long dreamed of enlarging one of the city’s parks, which just happens to be located near his home. On the day before the special meeting, he learns that the owner of a large tract next to the park would like to sell the property. The mayor quickly calls the clerk and asks her to add a closed session to the special meeting agenda so that the council may discuss making an offer on the tract.

The clerk is worried that adding a closed session to the agenda at this point would violate the open meetings law. She voices her concern to the city attorney, who asks whether the full council will be present for the meeting. When the clerk indicates that all members have said that they plan to attend, the attorney advises her not to worry. He tells her that G.S. 160A-71(b) permits the council to take up matters that don’t appear on the special meeting notice, provided all members are present or any absent members have executed a written waiver of their right to attend. Is the city attorney right? Read more »

Voting Rules for Adopting Ordinances

A property owner petitioned for a rezoning in a North Carolina city. The city council voted to send the matter to the planning board for a recommendation, and voted to set the public hearing. Now, following the public hearing, the board is ready vote on the rezoning. Does it take a two-thirds vote for the rezoning ordinance to pass, or just a simple majority?

Under the voting rules in G.S. 160A-75, if the date on which the board votes on the rezoning is regarded as the “date of introduction,” an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the actual membership of the council will be required to adopt the measure. If an earlier date is deemed to be the date of introduction, a majority of the members of the council will be sufficient. Which standard applies? If the two-thirds vote requirement applies and is not achieved, is the rezoning rejected, or may the council vote on the matter a second time at a subsequent meeting at which a majority vote will be sufficient? If this scenario involved a county rather than a city, would the answers to these questions be different? Read more »

The Nuts and Bolts of Property Tax Liens

I’ve blogged recently about the importance of record ownership as of January 1 and January 6 for property tax listing and collection.  Today I continue this New Year’s theme and discuss the property tax liens on real property that arise each January 1. Read more »

Determining the Pay for the New Sheriff

A new sheriff has been elected.  What will his salary be?  Must he be paid what the old sheriff was being paid, or can he be paid less?

Here is one way to read the statutes:  the new sheriff must be paid at least as much as the old sheriff, unless the county commissioners thought far ahead and took steps way back before the election to lower the salary in the upcoming term.

Here is another way to read the statutes:  The new sheriff can be slotted onto the county’s salary schedule at an appropriate grade and step just as any other employee coming into a new position would be.  The commissioners need take no step ahead of time other than adopting an appropriate salary schedule for all employees.

Which interpretation is correct?  Until a court might rule on the matter in a particular case, or the General Assembly might amend the statutes to clarify matters, we cannot know for sure.  But in my opinion, the second interpretation is correct:  the new sheriff can be slotted appropriately onto the pay schedule. Read more »

Mayor Learns a Harsh E-Discovery Lesson

The City of Prescott, Arizona, and its mayor, learned a harsh lesson about the failure to preserve emails and other electronic records during (and in anticipation of) litigation. The lesson has cost the city well over $100,000 in legal fees and $35,000 in court-imposed sanctions to date. (And the parties are still litigating.) It is a lesson that all local government officials should heed about the perils of governing in the digital age. Read more »