News
NC unemployment rate hits record low. These 5 counties have the highest rates:
According to the latest report from the N.C. Department of Commerce, North Carolina has a 3.3% unemployment rate, the lowest in decades.
News
East Laurinburg’s town books impounded by Local Government Commission
The Town of East Laurinburg’s charter hangs in the balance as the Local Government Commission recently voted unanimously to impound the town’s books and assume full control of its finances due to misappropriation of funds. It comes after an investigative report in October by State Auditor Beth Wood’s office. State Treasurer Dale Folwell is chair...
News
N.C. towns face insolvency as financial oversight falls short
After a decade of financial struggle, the small town of East Laurinburg in Scotland County could soon cease to exist. It could be the start of a trend: State Treasurer Dale Folwell now warns that a growing number of North Carolina towns are at risk of insolvency. To date, a half-dozen other small rural N.C....
News
’63 Law Ups Scotland’s Tax Bite
RALEIGH — Clint Willis isn’t bitter toward Scotland County voters, even though they didn’t re-elect him to the county Board of Commissioners in November. He regrets only that he couldn’t put the brakes on residents’ growing property-tax burden. His hard feelings are reserved for what he thinks helped get him booted from office: his opposition to the county’s 42-year-old “school floor” law. Willis told residents the 1963 state law, which applies only to Scotland County, places an undue financial burden on property owners by requiring them to fund local schools at a specific level.
