Agenda - 06-04-2013 - 7c - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 Additionally, North Carolina General Statute 105- 380(c) provides in part: (a) The governing body of a taxing unit is prohibited from releasing, refunding, or compromising all or any portion of the taxes levied against any property within its jurisdiction except as expressly provided in this Subchapter. (b) Taxes that have been released, refunded, or compromised in violation of this section shall be deemed to be unpaid and shall be collectible by any means provided by this Subchapter, and the existence and priority of any tax lien on property shall not be affected by the unauthorized release, refund, or compromise of the tax liability. (c) Any tax that has been released, refunded, or compromised in violation of this section may be recovered from any member or members of the governing body who voted for the release, refund, or compromise by civil action instituted by any resident of the taxing unit, and when collected, the recovered tax shall be paid to the treasurer of the taxing unit. The costs of bringing the action, including reasonable attorneys' fees, shall be allowed the plaintiff in the event the tax is recovered. For the reasons stated above, the County Attorney advises the Board of Commissioners that in his opinion issuing the requested refunds is not supported by current North Carolina law and could subject the individual members of the Board of Commissioners to personal liability. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Approval of these refund requests will result in a net reduction of $20,056.54 to the County, municipalities, and special districts. The Tax Assessor recognized that refunds could impact the budget and accounted for these in the annual budget projections. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board consider that County staff, the County Attorney, and the UNC School of Government staff has been unsuccessful in finding a way to approve these refunds that is supported by State law. As the Board has been previously advised, current administration believes that the proposed verification of records for all properties county -wide due to occur before the next revaluation scheduled for 2017 could produce numerous similar situations. Thus actions on these requests could establish the foundation for future claims and ensuing impacts. Approval of the requests could subject the individual members of the Board of Commissioners to personal liability since the requests do not appear to meet criteria set forth in NCGS 105 -381.