RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Senate and House Republicans will host a press conference Tuesday in the legislative press conference room at 9:30 a.m.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Republican Leader Paul Stam (R-Wake) will discuss a bill that codifies the Governor’s DOT actions, as well as a bill designed to provide transparency for all state appointments.

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina Republican legislators said they will concentrate on changing education policies during this year’s General Assembly.

Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that despite their minority status, they plan to target three education goals, including how teachers are paid bonuses.

Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County said bonuses are now paid to even the worst teacher at a well-performing school, while leaving out the best teachers at disappointing schools. Berger said that leads good teachers to avoid the schools that need them most.

House GOP leader Paul Stam of Wake County said the Republican changes would shift spending priorities to not require more spending when the state budget is short of money.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Opponents of annexation scored a victory last week, but it may turn out to be a mostly hollow one.

After months of combative hearings, a divided legislative committee recommended 14-to-6 that the N.C. General Assembly overhaul North Carolina’s annexation law.

The current law, one of the least restrictive in the nation, gives wide latitude to cities and towns in adding new residents against their will.

Among the changes that the committee recommended is one that many residents see as a matter of basic fairness: cities shouldn’t be allowed to annex unincorporated areas unless a majority of the people living in those areas vote in favor of annexation.

“If the cities have really got the need to annex people and really show that they can provide services, you will get a number of people willing to be annexed,” said state Rep. Larry Brown, R-Forsyth, an outspoken critic of forced annexation. “If the city’s got something to sell, they’ll go out there and sell, instead of just saying, ‘We want your tax money.’”

Advocates for cities dispute that. Requiring a referendum before annexations, they say, would effectively block most annexations that cities need in order to grow.

“When an area beside a city develops and needs urban services, it’s fair and reasonable for the residents to come into the city,” said Ellis Hankins, the executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities.

“In the view of many municipal officials and current residents of our municipalities, it would be unfair of the residents of those areas – that are adjacent to cities and have become developed – to stay outside the city forever.”

But frustrated residents of annexed areas, who have built a large grassroots movement pressuring the General Assembly, say they lack a choice – or even a voice – when cities decide to engage in forced annexation. They filled the audience at Thursday’s meeting of the legislative committee, cheering loudly when the committee approved its recommendations.

The problem for them now is actually getting the most controversial recommendations passed into law.

Despite some momentum behind their cause, that appears unlikely this year.

Joe Hackney, the speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, said Friday that he opposes any change to the law that would require cities to have a referendum in areas targeted for annexation.

“I do not support a vote prior to annexation,” said Hackney, D-Orange. “I think that’s a recipe for weakening our cities, and that’s not what I had in mind when I started this study.”

The Democratic leadership in the N.C. Senate has shown even less willingness to support major changes to the annexation law.

Last year, for instance, the House approved a moratorium on forced annexations, but the Senate never took it up. A moratorium was another one of the recommendations approved Thursday by the study committee.

Annexation opponents say that a moratorium would give the legislature time to make permanent changes to the law.

A number of other recommendations from the committee are less controversial and stand a better chance of becoming law this year. They include proposals for more oversight of cities’ annexation plans and more detailed public notices of planned annexations.

But opponents are unlikely to be satisfied without a provision that gives residents a formal vote in advance of annexations.

In the city of Lexington, a referendum would have surely defeated the city’s controversial annexation plans, said Lexington mayor John Walser. Lexington is currently undergoing annexations of three areas in Davidson
County that take in about 1,600 people. The annexations have prompted a lawsuit from residents who do not want to be added to the city.

“The reality of the thing is people just won’t vote to be annexed,” Walser said. Requiring referendums, he said, would be “tantamount to no annexation – and that’s not a compromise, that’s a cave-in.”

Freshman legislators are learning the ropes this week, according to the N&O.