local government

You have to admire their chutzpah. Because it is gutsy to run for the General Assembly as a conservative who wants less intrusive government, and, once elected, flood the place with bills overriding local communities' power to manage their own affairs. It seems that for many elected officials, the part about intrusive government applies only to governments to which you, yourself, have not been elected.

Legislators have proposed so many bills to limit local control that planning advocates, and planners themselves, say they can't even keep up. "It's just become overwhelming," says Rodger Lentz, planning director for Wilson and a past president of the state's chapter of the American Planning Association. "We're getting a lot less local control and more central control."

Best line of the piece:

Despite all the talk about freedom in Raleigh, political leaders today hate the idea of local governments controlling their own destinies. In the balance of power, the state is an 8000-pound gorilla compared to cities, towns and counties. Raleigh always calls the shots.

Celgard, LLC is going green, in more ways than one. The Charlotte-based company has received more than $52 million in taxpayer money from the federal and local governments.

I've spent the past 36 days getting used to life from the other side of the table. On March 1, 2010, I was sworn-in as the newest at-large Cumberland County commissioner. And as I face my first election this May, I need this community's help. Please follow me below the fold.

Well, it's been a day, folks. And that was after quite a night on Thursday.

On Monday, March 1 at 9 am in the Board of Commissioners chamber at the Cumberland County Courthouse, I will be sworn-in as the newest Cumberland County Commissioner, At-Large. I may have to dig up some history books...but after some discussion with people in the know, I believe I will be making history, at the age of 29, as the youngest commissioner in Cumberland County history. When I am sworn in, I believe I will also be the only attorney serving as an elected local government official in the county (to include our municipalities).

Last night's vote of the county executive committee was full of excitement, drama, suspense ... and, ultimately, victory. But that elation must quickly turn into dedication into getting the job done for the citizens of my county.

We can act now to channel over $1 billion into local government efforts to improve energy efficiency, lower energy usage, and reduce fossil fuel emissions.

Over recent months most of my non-work attention has been redirected from purely political issues to more local Town oriented work.

Local involvement was an total accident for me. I didn't plan it. Back last winter things started to happen with our growing County's land use plans and I did not particularly like what I was seeing. Being a resident of a small town in the part of my county that's been experiencing massive growth over the last ten years, I tried to get appointed to a county wide committee as a representative of our Town.

Naive? Absolutely.

Needless to say, that didn't work out, but it opened other doors.

A great and inspirational story. Frontpaged. A.

At Yearly Kos I kept hearing that local blogging is where it's at. There were two panels and a caucus on "state-local blogging." The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "Local blogs are key to future of politics." People are learning that the smaller the area represented, the more impact each constituent has

And yet, there was hardly a mention of county or municipal politics at Yearly Kos, other than how to work with local Democratic Parties. I'm certainly not opposed to advocacy targeting state and federal reps - in fact BlueNC.com does a great job of this and more power to you - but I think that truly local politics transcends party and hinges much more on individual relationships and reputations in a way that even state house races really don't.

This fact sheet on land transfer taxes from Chatham County is timely, informative, thought provoking and accurate.

So far, the General Assembly has only granted seven counties in the northeastern part of the state (Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Washington) [the authority] to levy a land transfer tax. Only Washington County has opted not to levy the tax.

The counties without the land transfer tax must rely on property taxes, state-authorized sales taxes and other limited fees, which rarely keep pace with demands for schools, water-sewer and other important needs.

I've been puzzling over this issue and talking to people about it for a few months now. Besides getting Johnston County off of Aero-Contractors' payroll, I think this is the most pressing moral issue facing our homey little triangle satellite county. I speak about transfer taxes here in relation to Johnston, but this is truly a statewide issue as other BlueNC diarists have noted.

Why? Because ...

Thanks to everyone for the great response to my first post about a statewide alliance to support local control over impact fees.

What I'm interested in now is knowing what parts of the state have the capacity to get behind it. I know what the story in Durham and Wake is like, but I don't know what it feels like on the ground in Mecklenburg, Buncombe, New Hanover, Guilford, Forsyth, Johnston, Alamance, Davidson, or any other county that's seeing fast growth. If this is going to work, we're going to have to put together a coordinated effort to bug legislators in a lot of different parts of the state.

So, here's my question: How much are your Commissioners amenable to impact fees? How about your legislative delegation? Are there existing environmental, smart growth, or other progressive groups which would be willing to lend their support in the form of coordinated letter writing or calling campaigns?