Legislative assault on local rule a power grab
Published May 23, 2014
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, May 22, 2014.
Cities and towns are under fire in North Carolina. Their ability to collect revenue for long-provided services is being limited, as is their right to regulate activities as local voters see fit.
Republicans complained for years about too much central control. They championed local government as closer and more responsive to voters. Decentralization would protect liberty by restraining bloated centers of power, trimming bureaucracies and restoring control to the people.
Today's GOP legislators may not have gotten that memo. In libertarian zeal to shrink even local government, they've come to resemble anarchists more than conservatives. Ironically, their actions are a huge power grab by state government.
There's no evidence that business privilege taxes interfered with the state's business climate, though some business owners would probably prefer not to pay so much of these fees or any others.
There was an issue with uneven ways of calculating these taxes. Lawmakers could have enacted reasonable restrictions to make the system more uniform. Instead they placed a $100 cap on taxes per business that makes them useless for producing revenue.
Many municipalities will have to choose between reduced services and higher property tax rates to make up the shortfall. In some places, the change will require a little adjustment. But in other cities, a limited tax base, substantial need for services and healthy numbers of commercial businesses made these taxes a good option to address local circumstances. In those places, such as Lumberton, the change will be painful.
Lawmakers are putting other blocks on local governments that appear both unprecedented and out of step with conservative ideals. They would limit appearance and tree-cutting codes. One proposed new law would prevent local oversight of fertilizer sales. Given what's emanating from Raleigh, perhaps lawmakers want to protect their monopoly.
A measure cut from the fracking bill would have prevented counties from increasing revenues by more than 8 percent. The rule would have stifled residential and commercial development in small communities, where they would have generated revenue, while requiring additional services. Amid an outcry, it was stripped from the final bill, but it came perilously close to becoming law.
Party and ideology aside, government tailored to local concerns is most accountable. Voters in cities and towns who don't like local rules can easily vote out municipal leaders, or give them the stink-eye in church or the grocery store.
Perhaps state legislators need to spend more time in their hometowns as well.
http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/article_e0d135a6-054e-5f33-b027-c183464b877f.html
May 23, 2014 at 5:32 pm
Richard Bunce says:
You totally miss the point... State chartered municipal corporations are creations of the State and as such the State must strictly limit their powers else the tyranny of the majority where large groups of voters use the coercive power of government to confiscate the wealth of small groups of voters. If these municipalities were ignoring Federal and State environmental regulations, many of which go far beyond environmental protection, you would be outraged.
