Orange County NC Website
24 <br />ENV -2: Seek legislation to establish a mechanism for local <br />governments to recover costs associated with providing <br />services or reversing negative effects on the community re- <br />lated to the natural gas and oil exploration industry and coal <br />ash storage. <br />• The Energy Modernization Act from 2014 prohibits local gov- <br />ernments from assessing any tax (aside from property tax) <br />on an individual or business engaged in energy mineral ac- <br />tivities, and it provides no mechanism for local governments <br />to access revenue from state taxes on the industry. <br />• The costs to local governments are difficult to determine with <br />such a new industry in North Carolina, but counties need a <br />means to recover potential costs such as employee time for <br />deed and tax assessment changes, employee training, and <br />emergency management activities. <br />ENV -3: Seek legislation to clarify that counties have the au- <br />thority to establish by ordinance a program for the collec- <br />tion of residential recyclable materials and to charge fees to <br />recover the costs. <br />• While some counties are running residential recycling pro- <br />grams, a resident has challenged the program in one county, <br />and statutory authority is unclear. A clarification to the stat- <br />ute would remove any doubt as to such authority. <br />