House passes overly restrictive annexation moratorium 

By a vote of 98 to 18, the House gave final approval to HB 2367 – Involuntary Annexation Moratorium .  The bill imposes a broad, harmful nine-month moratorium on city-initiated annexations.  It would prohibit municipalities from adopting resolutions of consideration, resolutions of intent or annexation ordinances between Aug. 31, 2008 and May 31, 2009. City-initiated annexations that have already started (resolutions of intent or consideration) also would be affected – the annexation proceedings would be suspended for the nine-month period, and the annexation could not become effective during that period. Annexation proceedings that are complete but in litigation also would be affected – upon a final judgment, the effective date would have to be after May 31, 2009. How a moratorium would affect pending city-initiated annexations is not clear, but it could result in cities and towns having to go back and do over some parts of the annexation procedures, at potentially significant expense. The bill does not affect citizen-requested annexations by petition, including satellite annexations.

The bill that passed the House on third reading on Thursday was amended on the floor to add back in the previous more restrictive provisions. The Judiciary II Committee had adopted a committee substitute for HB 2367 that would have prohibited city-initiated annexations from becoming effective during a nine-month period, but would not have prevented adoption of resolutions of consideration, intent or ordinances during the moratorium. That version of the bill passed second reading on the House floor, but the final vote was delayed. Before the final vote, the amendment putting back in the overly restrictive provisions were adopted, and then the bill passed final reading.

We appreciate the efforts of Reps. Dan Blue, Lucy Allen and Becky Carney, who spoke on the floor in support of cities and towns.  Please thank the members who voted against the harmful amendment: Representative(s) Alexander, K.; Alexander, M.; Allen; Bell; Blue; Bordsen; Bryant; Carney; Cole; Cotham; Dickson; Earle; Faison; Farmer-Butterfield; Fisher; Gibson; Glazier; Goodwin; Haire; Hill; Hughes; Jeffus; Killian; Love; Martin; Mobley; Neumann; Parmon; Ross; Samuelson; Saunders; Sutton; Tarleton; Tolson; Tucker; Underhill; Wainwright; Wilkins; Womble; and Wray.  We owe special thanks to the members who voted against the bill on third reading, after the overly restrictive amendment:  Representative(s): Alexander, K.; Alexander, M.; Earle; Fisher; Furr; Gibson; Glazier; Goodwin; Gulley; Haire; Hughes; Jeffus; Martin; Mobley; Owens; Saunders; Tolson; Tucker

“We told the House Select Committee back in February that municipal officials were ready and willing to discuss reasonable changes to the state's annexation statutes to address some concerns expressed by citizens.” said NCLM Executive Director S. Ellis Hankins. “Municipal officials and many business leaders do not believe that a moratorium is necessary or warranted, and are very concerned that this proposed block on annexations would impair orderly and cost-effective provision of necessary services to growth areas. If this were to become law, annexation opponents would seek to extend the moratorium next year and in future years, as happened in Virginia.”

The bill now moves to the Senate. We urge you to contact your senators immediately to voice your opposition to an annexation moratorium.  Ask them not to consider the moratorium in the last days of the session when there is inadequate time left for careful deliberation on this important issue.

Budget negotiations

According to published reports, the House and Senate have worked on most of the differences between their two versions of the budget, but there will be no vote on the budget this week. Leaders expect a vote next week.

Drought response legislation

League staff members now are evaluating a new version of legislation concerning drought issues that was proposed Thursday. The governor has called for legislation this session to deal with water conservation issues in response to drought conditions in the state. The staff is working to keep existing provisions for local participation in the procedures for declaring a water emergency, to retain local flexibility in choosing best practices in response to a drought and to protect local ability to set water system rates.