A handful of counties around North Carolina would be blocked from using their newest property appraisals to assess taxes on local property owners under a bill the legislature passed Wednesday.
Exactly which counties are or aren't affected could change depending on the fate of a separate bill the House of Representatives also passed Wednesday, but which the Senate has yet to vote on.
Other WRAL Top Stories
Every few years, county governments re-appraise what every piece of property inside county limits is worth, from hotels and office buildings to homes and vacant lots. Those appraisals are then used to determine how much their owners must pay in property tax. The proposed bill would block any new appraisals done this year from being used.
Many cities and counties around the state have already approved their budgets for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1, and the rest are planning to approve their new budgets in the coming days. The prospect that some could now be forced to reassess how much they’ll be able to collect in property taxes, and therefore spend on local services, could cause confusion and headaches in communities affected by the bill if it becomes law.
But even as Republicans praised the bill as being good for protecting people’s pocketbooks, several of them also maneuvered to exempt their own home counties from being affected. After a lengthy and contentious debate, it tentatively passed the House Tuesday in a 72-42 vote along party lines. A final vote, mostly a formality, is planned for Wednesday after which the bill would go to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to review.
Senate Bill 889 originally would’ve affected 20 counties statewide. That number was lowered to 12 in the Senate, and then lowered further in the House, in a series of convoluted provisions Tuesday that rushed through with broad confusion on both sides of the aisle. The House also took a separate bill, Senate 474, and rewrote it to exempt additional counties.
“I think it’s still nine counties in it, maybe eight,” said Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford, who led the House vote on the bill.
His own county, Guilford, is one of the remaining counties that would be affected if the bill becomes law. He said he’s worried that people on fixed incomes, or perhaps those who live in a home that’s paid off but are working a low-wage job, could lose their homes if property taxes keep increasing.
“People are under stress, and there's a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck already,” Blust said. “So if we let this go into effect there will, in Guilford, be a lot of people who will lose their homes.”
County leaders strongly oppose the revaluation freeze, as do local Democratic lawmakers. They said it could force cuts to rural fire districts, public schools and more. On Tuesday Rep. Tracy Clark, D-Guilford, said the bill is a last-minute change that could affect her county’s budget by millions of dollars. A Guilford County commissioner and the county manager also came to the legislature to oppose the proposal.
“I strongly believe that this bill is short-sighted,” Clark said. “To attempt to ease short-term financial pain, it will cause catastrophic trickle-down effects.”
She also noted the irony of the legislature throwing a wrench into the budgeting plans of local governments who have been hard at work setting their own budgets, even as the state legislature has still failed to pass a new budget for the current fiscal year, which is nearly over.
“We are now an entire year late … yet here we are restricting our local elected officials from doing what they need to do in order to invest in all the schools, and water infrastructure, and workforce preparedness, and everything else that comes with the logistical elements to fulfilling that economic promise,” Clark said.
The measure passed the state Senate last month. It was first proposed by Senate leader Phil Berger in February, days before Election Day, when he was battling to win a close race against GOP challenger Sam Page, who unseated Berger by a narrow margin. Berger’s district covers part of Guilford County, in addition to Rockingham County.
Supporters have previously acknowledged the bill isn’t intended to be a long-term fix; Berger has said it’s simply meant to buy the legislature another year to figure out more sweeping changes to property tax rules for the state.
Helene carveouts?
Some of the changes proposed to the bill on Tuesday were initially shot down, but then inserted into the separate bill that GOP leaders said they’d pass later. It passed the House Wednesday in a unanimous vote and next heads to the Senate for approval.
One of those requests was to exempt Buncombe County from the list of targeted counties.
Rep. Lindsay Prather, D-Buncombe, noted that Republicans in the legislature had already been allowed to exempt every other county on the list that had been hit by Hurricane Helene, except for the Asheville area. She said that’s not fair and needs to be addressed, since Buncombe County is the largest population and economic center in the region.
“Helene not only decimated Western North Carolina physically; it also blew a huge hole through local government budgets,” Prather said Tuesday. “I'm very grateful for everything that the legislature has done so far to contribute to Western North Carolina's recovery. But we're also well aware that the federal government has not stepped up in the same way.”
One of her fellow western North Carolinians, Rep. Dudley Greene, R-McDowell, took her side and asked GOP leaders to also grant the exemption to Buncombe County.
“I'd hate to hamstring our local governments, who are struggling so hard to make ends meet, and possibly even penalize some of our property owners out there,” he said.
However, since that change was added to a separate bill that wasn’t immediately put up for a vote Tuesday, it’s still unclear if it will become law. It has to clear not just the House but also the Senate.
Clark said the entire process was frustrating, noting that the fast-moving changes give members of the public little to no ability to know what’s happening before it’s already done. Even she can barely keep up with the last-minute changes, she said, despite being a sitting member of the legislature.
“The lack of transparency and public input in this building is infuriating to me,” Clark said. “This is my full-time job, and I have an MBA, and I struggle to keep up. No wonder the broader public distrust politicians. I think it's a shame that this is how bills of such magnitude are moved on such short notice.”