RALEIGH — In an April decision, the N.C. Court of Appeals overturned a jury ruling that Union County public schools had not been provided enough money by the county commission, saying that the judge had offered jurors an incorrect interpretation of the landmark Leandro decision that governs state and local school funding policies. The appeals court said state law limits the amount that school systems are entitled to receive from a trial award.
RALEIGH — Election officials and academics called on the General Assembly to scrap the state’s expensive, no-show runoff elections. Second primaries are held when no candidate in the first primary reaches a 40 percent plurality threshold and the second-place finisher requests it.
RALEIGH — Republicans made historic gains in the North Carolina legislature during Tuesday’s midterm election, gaining control of both chambers of the General Assembly by comfortable margins for the first time since the 19th century.
RALEIGH — Although the race officially is nonpartisan, Carolina Journal has compiled available information on the candidates, including party affiliation, endorsements, current employment, website addresses, and responses to questionnaires by independent groups.
RALEIGH — A public housing authority may establish a for-profit subsidiary that is exempt from local property taxes, according to a ruling by the state’s second highest court.
RALEIGH — In a rare ruling, North Carolina’s second highest court found that the state had violated the constitutional right of a Durham man whose case took nearly five years to come to trial.
RALEIGH — One day after the Wake County Board of Education met to discuss a school reassignment proposal that would require more students to change schools for the 2008-2009 school year, the N.C. Court of Appeals heard arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to prevent the county from forcing families to convert to year-round schools.
RALEIGH — A new N.C. Court of Appeals ruling likely will temporarily unplug most of the state’s red-light cameras. The decision requires that most of the money generated by the cameras go to local school systems, making the cameras a financial drain on localities under their existing state operating authority.
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s second highest court has clarified under what circumstances a city or town can engage in activities that private businesses ordinarily provide. The ruling comes in a case about the legality of the fiber-optic network Laurinburg was using to provide Internet access to itself and outside governmental and institutional users. The Court of Appeals held that because the wording of state law defining what constitutes a cable television system was ambiguous, the town could operate the network, even if it didn’t offer cable TV.
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s second highest court last week clarified under what circumstances a city or town can engage in activities that private business ordinarily provide. The ruling comes in a case about the legality of the fiber-optic network Laurinburg was using to provide Internet access to itself and outside governmental and institutional users. The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that because the wording of state law defining what constitutes a cable television system was ambiguous, the town could operate the network, even if it didn’t offer cable TV.
RALEIGH — Taxpayers have a right to a remedy for any erroneous and unlawful tax collection. The legal requirement in challenging a tax collection, however, must be precisely followed. In a Nov. 16 decision, the N.C. Court of Appeals clarified how corporations may go about challenging taxes. The state has two tax review panels. The first is the regular Tax Review Board. Its three members hear appeals of decisions of the secretary of revenue. The second is the Augmented Tax Review Board — the three panelists of the first plus the secretary of revenue — which considers petitions from corporate taxpayers for use of alternate allocation formulas in determining tax bases for income taxes.
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