What is going on with the annexation issue lately?

The Study

By now, it is perfectly clear that my suspicions were correct about the intentions behind the Senate Leadership's last minute move to become part of a "study" of the annexation laws. It was just a ruse. These "studies" of annexation have clearly become a tool to dampen citizen demands for real reform. The evidence confirms that. Just yesterday, the Committee finally sent out an announcement of the first meeting and less than twenty four hours later, the meeting was canceled. At this point, it is my opinion that we'd all be better off if the Committee never does meet.

In the face of the outstanding pressure from the citizens of North Carolina on the House members, with the growing momentum for change to the annexation law, the Senate Leadership apparently realized that the issue was going to be debated in spite of their refusal to be a part of it.  The rising level of citizen input was enough to influence more legislators to take action instead of acting defeated before they even tried, so the Senate Leadership had to step in and try to control the conversation.

As I suspected, this move by the Senate Leadership was not designed to further the discusssion. It was simply a move designed to run reform momentum right off the track and into oblivion. The Senate Leaders behaved in 2007 as if they believed that ignoring the debate would be enough to make the issue die off, but thanks to all of the grassroots action by all of you, they were proven wrong. The timing of their sudden interest in joining the debate makes their insincerity all too obvious.

Will they succeed in derailing the outcry for reform? That is up to us folks. This past year being devoted to the House Study and the Moratorium Bill was something that I felt was a distraction and a sidetrack from the real goal of reform. Proving to our Legislators that the grassroots support for reform is alive and growing was the single positive result of this past year's foray into another study and something that we need to carry forward into the Legislative Session in 2009.

It's time to set aside any confidence in the Joint Legislative Study Committee and move past it to advance the effort for reform of forced annexation. The number of organized people who are connected, informed, and focused on the State Legislature as the place to take our demand for reform is unprecedented. The history of citizen disatisfaction with annexation laws that allow predatory annexation by the cities in North Carolina has never been this widespread, coordinated, and vocal. The battle for reform is far from having exhausted all options. If we are truly committed to giving this battle for reform our best effort, we must stay committed to keep the pressure on the General Assembly into the next year.

The Economy & Annexation

We're all dealing with and worrying about the downturn in the economy. This downturn makes the battle to end predatory annexation by the cities much more important and relevant. The increase in forced annexations over the past few years is directly tied to the decreasing subsidies from the Federal spigot and the State largess into the cities. As the flow of funds from above have decreased, the cities have used annexation of all types to increase their tax rolls. The cities have been partners with developers in the creation of the housing bubble and the gravy train of overbuilding has come to an end. City Councils all over this State have refused to face the fact that the rate of growth was divorced from real market demand and would be unsustainable. They don't want to believe that the music would stop playing and the spending party would end.

Too many local governments have grown accustomed to using the tool of forced annexation to patch up the balance sheets at the end of the fiscal year when the spending exceeded what their budgets could handle. These elected officials are behaving like the grasshoppers in the story of "The Ant and the Grasshopper" _'because they can', when the State gives them tools like forced annexation. Except they don't have to beg the "ants" for what they want, they can just take it like a bunch of thugs.

With the economic squeeze, and the municipal leadership's lack of self control when it comes to spending priorities, the cities are preying on their neighbors to force them to maintain the spending spree, "because they can". They are like spendaholics breaking and entering to keep the money flowing. It's time to push back HARD or become the victims of this thuggery.

The city governments should be ashamed of themselves for victimizing people who had no part of endorsing their previous spending decisions now that we all find ourselves in these times of economic difficulty. But don't expect them to be ashamed. They need to be taken to task publicly for doing anything that contributes to more home foreclosures for no other reason than to avoid suffring the consequences of their own spending decisions. The cities need to tighten their budgetary belts just like all of the individual citizens of this State are having to do.

The 2008 Elections

We not only need to keep the pressure flowing steadily toward the General Assembly, but we also need to keep the pressure on our local elected officials that WE did elect; our County Commissioners. More of them need to step up and represent their constituents in the way that we are asking them to do. They need to speak up against predatory annexation by the cities.
On the subject of the County Commissioners role in this battle, you might find this Op Ed by Daren Bakst interesting: http://www.johnlocke.org/news_columns/display_story.html?id=5038
 
I hope that you are all still committed to continuing this effort for reform through the 2009 Session. Let's pick up where we were going over a year ago before we wandered off on this pursuit of another study. We had been building significant momentum with Legislators getting on board and we had increasing numbers of actual Bills that would address the necessary reforms. Another study is NOT going to reveal anything new to our opposition. They have study it numerous times and every tme the people have told them the same things that we are saying to them now. It's time for the General Assembly to stop delay tactics like "studies" and get on board with passing the Legislation that reflects what the people of NC feel is fair and right. NO FORCE in annexation! We will need to apply the same real pressure that the Legislators felt in 2008, getting behind the right Bill that we expect will be introduced in the 2009 session.

For now, for every person who believes that forced annexation is fundamentally wrong, no matter how the cities do it, there is an immediate opportunity in front of us that we should not let pass by. My hope is that everyone is contacting their local candidates who are asking for your vote and pressing them about the need to change the law. If they hedge about the issue, then they don't deserve our vote. If the failed to support reform in the past, they need to be sent home. Annexation reform needs to be an issue that makes or breaks some political careers this year and that will take a commitment across NC by every person to find out where the candidates stand and follow up by voting for annexation reform.

Recruit as many people as you can who will vote out some of the elected officials who are standing in the way of reform to vote on November 4th. There is a page on the StopNCAnnexation website that is there to help you check the record and position of candidates in the State Legislative races and the Governor. This list and the rankings have been very stringent about how the candidate has scored. They are scored on either their history of supporting or obstructing reform legislation or whether they are making  PUBLIC statements against forced annexation and violations of property rights. If it isn't important enough to them to announce their position publicly, then how will we hold them to their word later?
We need more than private promises, we need a commitment to action. We need to send an election day message to the obstructing incumbents.

"We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately." ---  Benjamin Franklin

Annexation Activity

The City of Raleigh has initiated a forced annexation of more neighborhoods to their North.
http://tinyurl.com/4yvgpo

The US Supreme Court has dismissed the Pinewild Community's takings case against forced annexation by Pinehurst.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=307038

I hope you will be with me in the fighting annexation in the upcoming election and into the 2009 Legislative Session!

Thank you for taking a stand.

Catherine Heath
StopNCAnnexation
http://www.stopncannexation.com

"If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Duane, 1811)

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