North Carolina local governments rarely have cash flow problems. Fund balances, on-going sales tax receipts and the predictability of property tax collections in January allow localities to manage their cash with predictability and a healthy safety margin. We all hope...

            We’ve had a few questions recently about funding sidewalk projects.  Sidewalks are expensive, so it’s hard to rely on stretched general fund tax revenues to fund sidewalks on a pay-as-you-go...

Keep your local authorities and nonprofits in good working condition Every county has an industrial authority (whether you know it or not). Most cities and towns will have a housing authority (sometimes whether you know it or not). Did you ever create a nonprofit...

On June 21 of last year, the Governor signed Session Law 2019-32. This law reorganized several state boards and commissions, as was required after some litigation between the Governor and the legislature. Section 1.(d) of that session law repealed Chapter 159I of the...

            We had an inquiry about setting out the very basics of how a local government can borrow money in North Carolina. This could be shared with governing board members or staff that might be new to local government. Here’s what we came up with. We hope that...

We hope it’s no secret how much our firm appreciates our friends across this great state. Thanks to you, Project Santa at Sanford Holshouser brought plenty of cheer to our Carrboro office. We sent out a request for ornaments that represented your neck of the woods in...

Happy New Year! As 2020 begins, 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: Compliance with financing covenants. If you have any...

In a previous post, we discussed the requirement for local governments to send a notice of a proposed borrowing to the “Legislative Joint Committee on Local Government.” This notice is to go to the Committee at least 45 days before consideration of a borrowing by the...

We now have the official 2020 calendar for meetings of the Local Government Commission. We thought a table might be handy. In addition to the meeting dates, this table shows the dates 28 days prior to the meeting, because, generally, the Commission staff wants a...

          If you’ve been thinking about having a referendum for bonds or sales tax in your community, you should know that the calendar for Spring 2020 will be different than it has been in prior years. In 2020, North...