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House Bill 119 Property Tax Relief for COVID Affected Businesses was filed late last week and would affect property tax revenue of municipalities, creating tremendous budget uncertainty. This bill aims to provide relief to businesses impacted by COVID-19 through property tax deferments and changes in property tax assessment. Specifically, the bill mandates a qualifying owner of property be granted a deferment on enforced collections from property tax liability for the time period running from March-December 2020, allows qualifying property owners to enter into a payment plan for the property taxes owed on the affected property, and directs the assessor of property to recognize the effect of COVID-19 relief efforts for purposes of determining the value of property. The legislation not only causes revenue uncertainty for local governments, but it creates an inefficient approach to help struggling businesses, as the processes that it would require will take months.

Requires counties to, in addition to newspaper advertisement, notify interested people or businesses by regular or electronic mail or by posting to a website or service that generates notice. This applies to construction or repair work, or purchase of supplies or equipment, over $50,000 being let to bid.

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) annually to collect information about selected legally defined geographic areas. BAS is used to update information about the legal boundaries and names of all governments.

Even if you have not had a recent boundary change, it's encouraged that you verify the US Census Bureau's version of your boundaries through TIGERweb.

Traditionally scheduled for the last two weeks of April and September, Litter Sweep is the N.C. Department of Transportation’s biannual statewide roadside litter removal initiative. Residents throughout the state participate in local efforts to help clean up North Carolina's roadways.

In addition to volunteers, NCDOT maintenance crews devote one week of their time to pick up litter and collect orange bags placed on the roadsides by volunteer pickups.

Volunteers are provided cleanup supplies, such as reversible orange/blue trash bags, gloves and orange safety vests,​ from their local NCDOT County Maintenance Yard office.

To participate in Litter Sweep, contact a NCDOT litter program coordinator in your county who will get your team set up with supplies.​

The Golden LEAF Foundation and the Center for Public Leadership and Governance at the UNC School of Government are partnering to launch the Golden LEAF Local Government Training Initiative for mid- and entry-level public leaders from economically distressed North Carolina communities.

The initiative is made possible through $493,546 in funding awarded by the Golden LEAF Board of Directors.

The initiative is open to municipal and county governments located in Tier 1 counties across the state as specified by the North Carolina Department of Commerce 2020, 2021 and 2022 County Distress Rankings. With an emphasis on nurturing future leaders, support will target public professionals working at the department director level and below, and local elected leaders from small municipalities with mayor-council forms of government.

For more information on how an employee or local government organization can participate in the Golden LEAF Local Government Training Initiative, please visit their webpage, sign up for the mailing list or contact Jenny Neville at neville@sog.unc.edu.

By Cecilia Kang

The money, aimed at low-income households, is part of an effort to bridge the access gap to broadband connectivity amid the pandemic.

By Robert Joyce

Some North Carolina cities have a problem, and there may be little they can do about it except wait and see if the General Assembly gives them some direction.

They all have city elections coming up in 2021, and they all elect city council members from true electoral districts—meaning that only the voters of that district vote for that council seat.

Due to limits in personnel or resources, small community water systems often have a tough time funding and implementing needed upgrades. A recent webinar on Leveraging Regional Development Organizations to Support Small Water Systems, hosted by the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN), shows how collaboration can make a difference by integrating water-system concerns into a broader approach to overall community concerns.