We have occasion to discuss from time to time the meaning of a preaudit certification by a finance officer, especially in terms of construction contracts that will be funded at least in part by borrowed money. A preaudit certificate imposes potential liability on a...

Washington County is constructing a new preK-12 school that will consolidate substantially all the County’s public schools to one location. We worked for the County as bond counsel in connection with its $19.8 million local financing for the project. The project had a...

Our client Jackson County recently made a $2,500,000 loan to Summit Charter School to help finance the construction of a new high school facility in the southern part of the County. The County made this loan pursuant to legislation enacted near the end of the 2023...

Back in 2013, the Town of Hillsborough issued North Carolina’s first “special assessment revenue bonds.” Most of the proceeds went to pay costs of constructing a road through Waterstone, a large development that includes a variety of housing units and the UNC Health –...

When you have a project that needs approval from the Local Government Commission, not everything you need to know about the process is written down in one place (or in many cases, written down at all). Bond lawyers and financial advisers will help you navigate, but it...

The State Auditor’s investigative reports on local governments sometimes document really bad, and even criminal, behavior by local government officials. In other cases, the findings are more about sloppiness, although sloppiness that gets bad enough can have criminal...

It’s not unusual to find a local government that has trouble spending the money it borrows for a project, or that has money left over when the project is done. We’ve written before, for example, about what you can do with proceeds left over on an installment...

An apartment developer approached the City of Waynesville for some extra support on a project that the City had already fully entitled for construction. With the run up in construction prices, the developer asked the City to participate in an arrangement under Section...

As we get to the start of 2024, we offer this list of items to keep in mind as you plan for new capital projects and manage your existing projects. Here are a few things to think about at least once a year: Review compliance with your financing covenants. If you have...

In 2018 the City of Rockingham spearheaded an effort to redevelop underused private property into a new downtown campus for Richmond Community College. The City saw that this project would revitalize the parcel, bring more people to the downtown both day and night and...