• Build Prosperous Cities and Towns
• Protect Citizens and Improve Our Quality of Life
• Enhance the Fiscal Health of Municipalities
• Make Wise Use of Natural Resources
• Improve Our Transportation Infrastructure

Click here for a printable PDF version of the 2011-2012 Municipal Advocacy Goals.

Build Prosperous Cities and Towns

• Seek legislation reforming annexation laws that ensures the ability of a city to grow in a reasonable manner, while providing quality municipal services on a timely basis.
• Seek legislation to allow municipal creation or extensions of extra-territorial jurisdictions (ETJ) without county approval.
• Seek legislation enhancing the authority of cities to own and operate broadband systems for their citizens, and providing incentives for last mile public-private partnerships. Include authority for cities that currently have operating broadband systems to continue.
• Seek legislation to allow municipalities to establish vacant housing receivership programs for the purpose of rehabilitating structures not meeting minimum housing standards and transferring them to responsible ownership.

Protect Citizens and Improve Our Quality of Life

• Support a system of liquor sales that maintains a local referendum about the decision to sell liquor, preserves local control over the location and density of liquor outlets, preserves the local revenue stream from liquor sales, and increases the authorized local permit fees statewide.
• Seek legislation to protect the privacy of municipal residents by limiting public access to lists of email addresses submitted by citizens to municipalities.
• Seek legislation to strengthen the role of municipalities in the approval, renewal and revocation of ABC permits.
• Support legislation permitting a governmental entity to seek an order of abatement where a property may have some legitimate use, but is also the source of regular criminal nuisance activity.
• Seek legislation to grant more flexible authority for local public safety officers to enforce ABC-related laws.

Enhance the Fiscal Health of Municipalities

• Support legislation to expand the sales tax base to include services.
• Seek legislation to allow all municipalities to adopt a prepared meals and beverage tax.
• Seek legislation to: 1) require that counties conduct a public hearing before approving a resolution choosing the method of sales tax distribution; 2) delay the implementation of a change in method until July 1 of the calendar year following the adoption of the change; and 3) phase in the change in method over four years.
• Seek legislation to allow all municipalities to adopt impact fees to pay for growth-related infrastructure and services.
• Seek legislation to revise the local land transfer tax so that: 1) it can be adopted without a referendum; and 2) municipalities receive a share of the revenues.
• Support legislation to reform the municipal business privilege license tax by: 1) eliminating exemptions and caps for specific categories of businesses; 2) specifying the appropriate bases for the tax; 3) requiring municipalities to adopt a rate schedule that applies to all types of businesses within a municipality; 4) limiting the amount of taxes paid by businesses that have business activity within a municipality but no business location within it; and 5) capping the amount of tax that can be imposed on any single business location.
• Support legislation providing municipalities with the authority to impose a fee to recover the costs of vehicle accident and fire response from at-fault drivers and parties responsible for fires, up to a statutory maximum amount.

Make Wise Use of Natural Resources

• Seek legislation creating a state bond program for upgrades to water and wastewater treatment systems, expansion of stormwater programs and assured water supplies.
• Support the equal application of water quality management rules that impact cities to N.C. municipalities, counties, state agencies and private operations, require payment of city stormwater fees by all state agencies, and require maintenance of all stormwater structures by permitted entities.
• Support legislation establishing a water permitting system that protects existing municipal withdrawals, allows for future growth, includes all withdrawers and accounts for all downstream users.
• Support legislative and regulatory efforts for efficiencies in water, wastewater and stormwater permitting processes.
• Seek legislation to classify reclaimed water as a resource water, and study the injection of treated water into aquifers.

Improve Our Transportation Infrastructure

• Seek legislation to allow Powell Bill funds to be used for sidewalks and walking paths that are adjacent to, but not located within, the right-of-way of State-maintained roads.
• Seek legislation ensuring significant municipal decision-making authority and respect for local ordinances in the design of transportation projects across all NCDOT Divisions, to lower congestion, enhance quality of life, improve aesthetics, improve public safety and bolster public health for city residents, regardless of the city’s financial participation in a project.
• Seek legislation to increase the existing municipal vehicle fee for public transportation from $5 to a maximum of $20, and allow it to also be used for pedestrian and bicycle projects.
• Support legislation to increase funding for the State Mobility Fund in order to support regional congestion mitigation projects, interstate maintenance and a Powell Bill supplement; and to provide additional funding sources for State transportation projects.