Jul 03 2008
NC House Passes Annexation Moratorium
RALEIGH – The first serious threat in years to a state law letting cities add residents without their approval has passed a crucial test.
A nine-month moratorium on annexations started by cities and towns cleared the N.C. House Wednesday on a 98-18 vote.
Just as importantly to its supporters, House members expanded the bill just before final passage to stop cities from taking key steps leading up to expansion.
A committee’s move to take out that part of the moratorium had “crippled the bill,†said an opponent, House Republican Leader Paul Stam.
It’s unclear whether Senate leaders who oppose a moratorium will allow the bill to be heard.
“I wouldn’t bet as much on it,†moratorium opponent Rep. Dan Blue said, “as I would be willing to bet I would be the first man on the moon.â€
The passage of this ban, while temporary, just moved the state forward about a 100 years to catch up to the present. I’ve been baffled for a long time that in a “free” country where private property rights play a large role in that framework (unless you’re a justice on the SCOTUS) how North Carolina could still have laws on the books in the 21st century allowing cities to involuntarily incorporate people’s property. It’s just anti-American and should be common sense.
What’s with these Senate leaders by the way? They oppose a moratorium? Do Basnight and Rand not believe in fundamental private property rights? Does State Representative Dan Blue also oppose his constituents having control over their own land? If this is the case these people need to seriously be reexamined by their voters in November.
Here’s the answer to what Basnight, Rand, and Blue believe. [I'd like to know what the Senator from your end of the state believes...speaking of Joe Sam Queen, who has refused to answer any of my questions regarding this issue.]
Yesterday democracy lost two more battles to lobbying by the League of Municipalities. [Shades of Jim Black!] Speaker of the House, “Representative?†Joe Hackney, decided to hinder the citizens’ rights to access public records. His counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, further trampled on our citizens’ rights by refusing to allow HB2367, the Annexation Moratorium, to reach the Senate floor.
Despite HB2367 having been passed by an overwhelming majority in the House, despite the pleas of hundreds of thousands of abused citizens, despite 33 of his fellow Senators requesting that the bill be heard, and despite the long and arduous study by the House Select Committee on Annexation into the abuse of the current law, leading them to introduce the bill, Senator Rand killed it singlehandedly.
Acknowledging that abuse is going on, Senator Rand chose to allow it to continue. He first excused this decision by saying that the bill doesn’t meet the “rules†to be considered in the Short Session because it is from a House Select Committee [which twice asked the Senate to be a part of the study and were refused].
The rules do allow it. Senate Joint Resolution 1573 from 2007 specifically states that bills implementing the resolutions of study commissions and select committees may be heard. In this Short Session, HB2188, also a bill from a House Select Committee, was ratified by the Senate.
Instead of working with the House, Senator Rand has totally disregarded all the conscientious work they have done to address the wrongs being done under the current law. The refusal to allow a vote on HB2367 was just a stall to allow the League to continue to use their weapons of mass destruction [the law and the cities] to steal more land and do more damage to the people of this state! Have you ever noticed that most of the bills The League supports have to do with the taking away of rights from the people and giving them to some form of government?
As long as our House and Senate are controlled by two men who listen to lobbyists rather than the people, the citizens of our state will not receive justice. It is time for a change of leadership and an in depth investigation of the League’s publicly funded budget and its obvious and continuing damage to the interests of the citizens of this state.
If you dont want to live in a city… and receive it’s services… DON’T If you want water and cops and roads and controlled growth, let the cities do what they need to. This is not a matter of PRIVATE OWNERSHIP… it’s a matter of selfish morons thinking they can do whatever the hell they see fit without reguard for others! NOT GOD’S PLAN, MAN! We need order in society… cities (with democratic elections) allow for that!