ANNEXATION

Editorial: Annexation agreement provides glimpse of future. Unless you find unplanned, undirected growth attractive, an annexation agreement between Hope Mills and Fayetteville is responsible governance, nothing more. The plan, already approved by the City Council and awaiting a Sept. 20 vote by the town board, designates the urbanizing areas each might take in someday. … As long as the statute remains on the books, it is reasonable to expect municipalities to abide by it and unreasonable to suppose that municipalities will ignore or abandon that responsibility. It's useful, too, to remember that there's such a thing as annexation by petition. Often, people can see the benefits of city utilities, maintenance and emergency services, even if those must be weighed against the prospect of a second property tax bill.

ABC SYSTEM

Cumberland ABC board gives raises to employees. The Cumberland County ABC Board has approved what it calls a 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment for its employees, ahead of a new state law that is supposed to rein in excessive pay at local boards. The raises at the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which employs 56 full-time and 17 part-time workers, went into effect July 1. The state law kicks in Oct. 1. "Whatever it is, it's not a cost-of-living increase," said John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation, of the ABC raises. "That's way above the increased cost of living."

GENERAL

Maxton wins for best water in N.C. All Larry Combs has to do to reassure water customers in Maxton that he’s doing his job is to show him the plaque the town recently won, naming it home of North Carolina’s best water supply. "I’ve always told the citizens: If I don’t drink the water, I don’t want you to drink it," said Combs, who has worked for the town for about seven years. Recently, the North Carolina Rural Water Association used a taste test to determine Maxton’s sample was the best-tasting and most aesthetically pleasing water in the state.

BROADBAND

Opinion: Who writes pro-cable Internet legislation? Cable does. A month ago, we covered the news that a long-simmering municipal broadband bill had been taken off North Carolina’s legislative stove and (to continue the metaphor) jammed back into Raleigh’s government deep freeze. The bill targeted North Carolina communities who thought that broadband ought to be a public utility, and it sought to make such community-owned networks much more difficult. “An Act to Ensure That A Local Government That Competes with Private Companies in Providing Communication Services Has The Support Of Its Citizens” was sponsored by a prominent state lawmaker and backed by incumbent ISPs, including the cable lobby. But it’s not like those ISPs actually wrote the now-discarded bill, right? Local TV station WCNC almost single-handedly makes me want to take back every bit of whinging I’ve ever done about the idiocy of local news, because they approached bill sponsor David Hoyle this week and came back with the sort of quotes journalists would trample their mothers for …

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Vacant seats will be pivotal in November. The outcomes of three Southeastern North Carolina state Senate races will help determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate -- and the legislative and spending oversight that comes with that power. All three would-be incumbents in those districts -- Democratic Sens. Charlie Albertson, Julia Boseman and R.C. Soles Jr. -- aren't running for re-election, giving Republicans mouth-watering hopes of taking those seats en masse.