Posts Tagged ‘local acts’

Local Acts Relating to Health and Sanitation: Supreme Court Weighs in On Asheville and Boone Cases

Thursday, January 5th, 2017

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 city of Asheville to transfer its water system to a newly formed water and sewer […]

Legislative Transfer of Asheville Water System Is Constitutional

Thursday, October 15th, 2015

[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 Asheville to transfer its water system to an existing metropolitan sewerage district (MSD) operating in […]

Deannexation

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

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 to the taxpayer. This provision became effective July 1, 2013 and expires July 1, 2016 […]

Local Acts and General Laws: Another Look

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

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 earlier-adopted local act. Taking another look at this question, it appears that North Carolina case […]

Local Government Authority: Piecing it Together

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

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 be governed by a mix of 1) its charter, which is a local act of […]