NC House Votes to Repeal Orange County Impact Fees

Orange County may soon be searching for funds to fill an estimated $5 million gap for schools.

Two bills being considered in the North Carolina General Assembly that could impact Orange County funding sources passed the House on Tuesday.

House Bills 406 and 436 passed the House ahead of the upcoming crossover deadline. Bills that have not passed from one chamber to the other by the self-imposed deadline, which is this week, are effectively dead for the remainder of the legislative session.

House Bill 436 – which was introduced by Mount Airy Republican Sarah Stevens – initially proposed to repeal all impact fees imposed by local governments across the state. These fees are assessed to developers to help offset some of the costs of extending local services to those new communities.

An amendment from Orange County House Representative Graig Meyer altered that proposal while it was still in committee. And the final version that passed the House on Tuesday rolls back impact fees to levels they were in June 2016, while also putting a moratorium for one year on raising those fees. The General Assembly would then use that year to study impact fees and come back with further direction.

But the same amendment failed on the House floor on Tuesday for a proposal that is targeting Orange County specifically. House Bill 406 was also introduced by Stevens and repeals Orange County’s authority to impose separate impact fees going toward local school construction costs.

Those impact fees were increased this year, prompting a developer to contact Stevens requesting the legislation.

When Meyer proposed the amendment on the floor Tuesday, it did have support from some Republicans. But when a vote was called, the amendment failed by a 60-59 margin.

The overall bill then passed the House 80-40.

Another Orange County Representative Verla Insko estimated the proposal, if passed by the Senate and signed into law by Governor Roy Cooper, would cost the county approximately $5 million.

Insko said the bill was an attempt to shame the Orange County Commissioners but would actually hurt children of the county. Meyer said he had already spoken with commissioners who understood the impact of this legislation and had already taken measures to roll back the fees.

The bills will now move to the Senate. There is no timeline for when a vote could be held in that chamber. There is also no indication of whether Cooper would veto either bill.