By Emery P. Dalesio
Associated Press
RALEIGH ó When a competitor tried to get the edge on former NASCAR racer Donnie Allison on the track, he knew a well-timed bump in the corners could get them to back off.
But after Salisbury tried to add his home on the outskirts of the city against his will, Allison pulled on a red T-shirt urging “No Forced Annexation” and joined hundreds of others Wednesday at the Legislature to demand changes to annexation laws.
“I never have been big into the political end of it,” said Allison, who raced on the NASCAR circuit for more than 20 years before shutting down in 1988. “Now I feel like I need to speak up not only for me but everybody concerned.”
What drew his ire was a bid Salisbury shelved last year to extend its borders to include another 2,000 acres in the city limits. Allison said he’s owned the home for nine years and pays about $1,200 a year in taxes. That’s likely to increase if the city grows to include his 1.4-acre property and he’s forced to pay for the city’s services.
But most galling, Allison said, is he can’t vote for his choice.
“We don’t live in a dictator state,” Allison said. “It all comes back to one thing ó put it to a vote. But (local) officials won’t do that.”
Reforming North Carolina’s 50-year-old annexation laws is growing into one of the leading issues at this year’s General Assembly. Nearly two dozen bills on the subject have been introduced this year.
The state’s involuntary annexation laws for years were credited with allowing North Carolina’s cities and towns to grow along with suburban sprawl. While Rust Belt cities saw middle-class residents flee their urban core to homes in successive rings of suburbs, taking their property tax revenues with them, North Carolina cities were able to avoid becoming the empty hole of a doughnut.
But protests have increased from residents who saw their property taxes increase, then waited sometimes for years before seeing any benefits.
“If you took a man’s land and didn’t give him sewer (service) for five years, shame on you,” Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, told mayors from around the state also lobbying the Legislature Wednesday. “You helped create the pickle we’re in.”
He told members of the North Carolina League of Municipalities, the association representing cities and towns, that annexation laws have helped keep urban areas strong and needed to be protected. But he signaled some changes would come.
“I don’t believe you will be disappointed. That’s the best of what I could say,” Basnight told the mayors.
Municipal officials want legislators to make some reforms, but without opening annexation plans to local referenda.
Morehead City’s mayor, Jerry Jones, said municipalities should be made more accountable about delivering services promised to communities annexed. But allowing residents to vote on whether to accept annexation into a municipality could stunt cities and towns, he said.
Suburban residents are “using the services but they’re not paying for the services,” Jones said. “It’s all about the money. We know that’s what it’s about. They don’t want to pay the taxes.”
The demonstrators came to Raleigh a day after Wilmington’s city council voted to annex about 950 acres and 3,300 residents beginning in mid-2010. City officials projected that over five years, the city would receive about $520,000 more in property taxes and other revenue from the new residents and businesses than the cost of providing services to the area, the Star-News of Wilmington reported.
Andy Rueb and fellow residents of the Pinewild Country Club near the Village of Pinehurst were among the demonstrators Wednesday. If the country club homes are annexed by Pinehurst, the average tax bill will rise by about $1,000 a year per household, said Rueb, 65.
“We get nothing in exchange,” he said.