Annexation Reform

Statewide pressure is growing to reform the onerous North Carolina law that allows municipalities to annex the private property of county residents with no representative oversight or citizen recourse.

Cathy Heath (www.stopncannexation.com) reports that two reform bills have been filed:

House Bill 645, co-sponsored by Rep. Danny McComas (Danny.McComas@ ncleg.net).
Senate Bill 494 (Julia.Boseman@ncleg.net).

These bills provide oversight by our county commissioners; require cities to provide services that do not duplicate those now available; and allow a vote of the people affected if they object.

Rallies throughout the state will be sponsored by the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity (www.americansforprosperity.org), a national nonpartisan grassroots organization.

Here in River City a “Wilmington Tea Party” will be held on April 7. AFP-NC Grassroots Director Chris Farr can provide more information. She may be contacted at chris.farr@afphq.org.

On May 6th a “Rally for Reform” is planned in Raleigh, the same day the powerful NC League of Municipalities lobby will converge on our representatives. Guess what this group of hundreds of city and town officials will be up to?

Not exactly a reassuring explanation

WWAY-TV caught up with the region’s congressional delegation — Rep. Mike McIntyre and Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan — and asked a series of interesting questions. On the stimulus package, McIntyre gave an interesting answer, albeit not a reassuring one:

In the House, Representative Mike McIntyre thought government was not working for the people when he voted against bailouts for banks and automakers. But he, too, supported the stimulus plan. “We’re at a point were we have got to do something, but make sure that money benefits the most people and that it’s invested now.”

Gotta “do something”? This sounds an awful lot like the bully Nelson Muntz, of Simpsons fame, when asked why he had a “Nuke the Whales” poster in his room: “Gotta nuke something.”

Touche.

Delicious headline of the day

From the Star-News:

Attempted bagel store robbery proves fruitless

Some had suspected there were blueberries in the dough. Turns out they were wrong.