Category: Finance & Public Private Partnership Tools
Options for Expanding Property Tax Relief for Lower Income Homeowners
Uniformity is a defining characteristic of our state’s property tax system. As I’ve written before, both our state constitution and the Machinery Act (the collection of state statutes that govern property taxes) require that all local governments across North Carolina play by the same property tax r … Read more
Local Government Support for Privately Owned Affordable Housing
By most accounts, the need for affordable housing across North Carolina is massive. According to 2019 census data, over a million North Carolina households are “cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Almost half of those are “severely cost burdened,” meaning the … Read more
How to Define a Retail Trade Area and an Office and Multifamily Market Area in a Small Town
The School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative (DFI) was founded in part to provide specialized assistance to help small towns in North Carolina attract private investment and spur revitalization efforts. A key part of DFI’s process is to evaluate the type and scale of development that th … Read more
American Rescue Plan Act: Aid for Small Businesses and Nonprofits with ARP/CLFRF
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) is a wide-ranging law that provides federal funding in areas ranging from child care to higher education to community service to relief for shuttered venues to a restaurant revitalization fund. Separate from those programs, one component of ARPA distribute … Read more
American Rescue Plan: Local Government Funding for Affordable Housing Development
UPDATE: In July 2022, U.S. Treasury and HUD jointly released an “Affordable Housing How-To Guide” here: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Affordable-Housing-How-To-Guide.pdf. Please consult that document in conjunction with the state law information provided below and in charts here and her … Read more
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Local Government Authority to Expend their Allocations
On March 11, 2021, the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) became law. There is still a lot to be deciphered in this $1.9 trillion stimulus package; the third such major relief act since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We do know that the law includes substantial aid for state and loc … Read more
TDAs Eligible for PPPs
Translation: Tourism Development Authorities Now Authorized to Borrow Money Through the Federal Paycheck Protection Program A Tourism Development Authority (TDA) is a local government entity that is typically created by a county or municipality to administer and expend local occupancy tax proceeds t … Read more
Taxes In Troubling Times
Tax administration is obviously not at the top of any local government’s list of pandemic concerns. But social distancing and other remedial measures made necessary by this public health crisis are creating some unusual challenges for tax offices, and some of those challenges relate to community a … Read more
Using Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds for Small Business Support
On May 6, 2020, the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management delivered a letter to counties with the amount of federal funds that will be distributed to each county from the “Coronavirus Relief Fund” (CRF) pursuant to the federal CARES Act. Guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury D … Read more
Student Corner: Emergency Funds for Small Businesses
As of April 2020, the full economic impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are still unknown. Millions of Americans have filed for unemployment compensation, and non-essential businesses have been forced to close. In the process, small business owners have been left wondering how to meet debt a … Read more