Agenda - 09-03-1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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096 Board of Commissioners Page Two August 29, 1985 North Carolina General statute Section 153A-199 provides that each owner of assessed property shall pay his assessment in full within thirty days after the date that notice of confirmation of the assessment roll is published, unless the Board has provided that assessments may be paid in annual installments. If payment by installments is permitted, any portion of an assessment not paid within the thirty day period must be paid in annual installments. The Board, in the assessment resolution, determines whether payment may be made by annual installments and sets the number. This number may not be more than ten. North Carolina General Statute Section 153A-201 provides authority to "hold assessments in abeyance." That section does not specify all of the reasons for which assessments may be held in obeyance. However, it does state, for water or sewer assessments and for beach erosion control or flood and hurricane protection assessments, that they may be held in obeyance for not more than ten years from the date of confirmation of the assessment roll. The second paragraph of G.S. Section 153A-201 states as follows: If assessments are to be held in abeyance, the assessment resolution shall classify the property assessed according to general land use, location with respect to the water or sewer system (for water or sewer assessments) , or other relevant factors. The resolution shall also provide that the period of abeyance shall be the same for all assessed property in the same class. Age of the property owner or the ability of the property owner to pay the assessment are not among those classifications listed in that section. Each of the items of classification relates to the property itself or in some other manner defines a feature of the property and is totally unrelated to the property owner or the property owners' biography. It is therefore my opinion that the General Assembly has not authorized a county to hold assessments in abeyance for a class of persons. This is true even though that class of persons meets the qualifications for property tax relief under North Carolina General Statute Section 105-277.1. In that regard, the "classification" of the property contained in North Carolina General Statute Section 105-277.1 as not subject to property taxes is an exercise of the so-called "classification power" of Article V, Sec. 2(2) , of the North Carolina Constitution. I mention the constitutional authority for such a property tax classification because it raises a "constitutional doubt" in my mind about the