The American Rescue Plan Act: Employers Who Voluntarily Extend FFCRA Leave May Be Eligible for Substantial Employment Tax Credits

Local government employers are now eligible for credits against the social security and Medicare tax payments that they must make, if they voluntarily extend Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave (EFMLA leave) through September 30, 2021. Through most of 2020, governmental employers had to make the same special wage payments for EPSL and EMFLA leave as private employers, but private employers got a tax credit for those payments and governmental employers did not.  Now, the American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law on March 11, 2021, appears to allow local government employers to receive credit against FICA taxes for wages paid when employees take EPSL and EMFLA leave. Read more »

TDAs Eligible for PPPs

Translation: Tourism Development Authorities Now Authorized to Borrow Money Through the Federal Paycheck Protection Program

A Tourism Development Authority (TDA) is a local government entity that is typically created by a county or municipality to administer and expend local occupancy tax proceeds to promote tourism in the local government or region. There is no general law authority to create a TDA. Instead, that authority has been given to several counties and municipalities through local acts, almost always in conjunction with the authorization of a local occupancy tax. A TDA is a separate legal entity from the county or municipality that established it, although it may be reported as a component unit of the local government for financial reporting purposes. Although the general purpose of TDAs across the state is the same, the specific powers and authorities of individual TDAs vary and are prescribed by the respective local acts that authorize their creation.

As discussed in a previous post, TDAs may not borrow money, because that authority may not be conferred by the General Assembly by local act. The NC Constitution requires the General Assembly to authorize a local government entity to borrow money only through a general law enactment. (A general law is defined in Sect. 3 of Art. XIV of the NC Constitution.) The lack of borrowing authority presented a difficulty for TDAs looking to take advantage of a COVID-19 related federal stimulus program, known popularly as the Paycheck Protection Program or PPP. The General Assembly recently enacted a general law granting TDAs borrowing authority for the limited purpose of applying for PPP loans. See Section 2.19 of S.L. 2021-3, effective March 11, 2021. Read more »

An Update on COVID-19 Vaccination for Local Government Employers

UPDATED MARCH 25, 2021

Starting now, many, but not all, local government employees are eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations.  In an earlier blog post, I outlined North Carolina’s vaccination priority plan. The state has made changes to the plan to align it more closely with the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations and with the realities of vaccine availability. A recent increase in the supply of vaccines means that more local government employees are now eligible. Read more »

One Year of COVID-19 in North Carolina

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in North Carolina was announced one year ago today, on March 3, 2020. Since that date, the state has recorded over 860,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths due to COVID-19. The state’s Black, Latino, and Native American populations have experienced disproportionate rates of illness and death, exacerbating health inequities that were already known to exist. Read more »

Time for Cities, Counties, and School Boards to Redistrict, But No Numbers!

Update March 4, 2021:  In the days since this blog was posted, readers have sent me corrections to my lists.  I am very grateful.  The post below is updated to fix the lists.  I think they are right now, but if anyone spots problems, please let me know.

Here is the updated post:

These North Carolina cities have a problem, and there may be little they can do about it except wait and see if the General Assembly gives them some direction:

Ahoskie, Cary, Charlotte, Clinton, Edenton, Elizabeth City, Enfield, Erwin, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Henderson, Hickory, Jacksonville, Kings Mountain, Lake Waccamaw, Laurinburg, Lexington, Longview, Lumberton, Mooresville, Mt. Olive, New Bern, Plymouth, Princeville, Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Sanford, St. Pauls, Siler City, Smithfield, Statesville, Tarboro, Whiteville, and Wilson.

They all have city elections coming up in 2021, and they all elect city council members from true electoral districts—meaning that only the voters of that district vote for that council seat.  Every time there is a federal census, as there was in 2020, they must take the new census numbers, apply them to the old electoral districts, and determine whether the districts have gotten out of population balance over the course of 10 years since the last census.  If they have, then the city council must draw new districts to bring them back into balance.  Failure to do that is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

After the census of 1990, cities drew new districts in 1991.  And after the 2000 census, they drew new districts in 2001.  And again after the 2010 census, new districts in 2011.

The schedule was always tight.  The census numbers always came out in February or March, and the new districts had to be in place in time for the July candidate filling period ahead of the November elections.  Cities had to hustle to get it done.

This year is dramatically different.  The U.S. Census Bureau has said that the numbers needed for redistricting will not be available in February or March.  In fact, they may not be available until the end of September. Read more »

Tax Tips for a Resurgent Real Estate Market

I’ve written several blog posts about how the pandemic might affect local taxes (here, here, here, and here), focusing mostly on negative economic news.  But there is at least one positive economic development from the pandemic that will impact property taxes; the residential real estate market is very strong across most of North Carolina.

In the Wilmington area, the number of residential sales were up 22% in 2020 as compared to 2019, with sales prices increasing over 10%.  The same is true in Charlotte (prices up 11%) and in the Triangle (sales up 11%).

Here are a few tax tips to keep in mind as residential sales heat up.

Read more »

Using Web-Based Scheduling Applications to Make Appointments for COVID-19 Vaccination Events: HHS Issues Notice of Enforcement Discretion

COVID-19 vaccinations are beginning to be made available to the public. As of this writing, health care workers and adults age 65 or older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina. As vaccine roll-out continues, additional groups of individuals will become eligible.

North Carolina local health departments are critical partners in the effort to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to large numbers of people rapidly. They are also HIPAA-covered entities that must comply with regulations including the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Breach Notification Rule. Among other things, these rules require covered health care providers to maintain the security of individually identifiable health information that is collected or maintained electronically, including information that is collected for the purpose of scheduling appointments for health care services. Determining how to schedule appointments for individuals while not violating these rules has posed a challenge to HIPAA-covered providers operating large-scale COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

On Tuesday, January 19, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) —the HIPAA enforcement agency—issued a Notice of Enforcement Discretion (NED) stating that OCR will not impose penalties against covered health care providers or their business associates who use online or web-based scheduling applications to schedule individual appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations, provided the health care provider or business associate acts in good faith. The enforcement discretion is effective retroactively to December 11, 2020, and will remain in effect for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Read on for additional details. Read more »