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