State Port Pilot, 09.11.24
The following letter to the editor that I wrote in May 2012 was shared with Southport Aldermen last month. It could have been written 12 weeks ago because the two local legislators responsible for the 2012 bill favoring developers are still making unfair decisions today. It was suggested that they be replaced on November 5.
“There has been tremendous growth in the Southport area during my 35 years as a citizen of the waterfront town. However, I was mystified when the “official” population remained relatively stable over three decades. I did not understand why the town failed to fill several potholes in a road beside an abandoned drugstore near the main street. I was confused when a city policeman stopped me on a street that was later included in an anti-annexation petition.
The mysteries were solved when I found that city limit signs were actually placed at points that would normally define the center of a town or city. Southport officials didn’t have the road near its “entrance” paved because it was outside the city limit. There was “freeloading” of city services when developers built subdivisions just outside the “drawn in” city limit. Residents of these subdivisions have the benefit of city services—fire, rescue, and police services, good shopping, and tourist attractions—without the corresponding tax bill. It is equivalent to “Representation (Services) Without Taxation”—the reverse of the well-known rallying cry.
The current annexation bill(s) in Raleigh is equivalent to the city allowing someone to pitch a tent in the right-of-way beside my front yard and allowing the occupants to use my water faucet without my permission for 12 years. State legislators have an opportunity during their “short session” to do the right thing by refusing to challenge the recent decision of an appeals court that supported the annexation effort of Southport, Wilmington, and other cities in North Carolina.
They should also allow citizens of towns and cities to vote along with non-residents during the “petition” stage of the annexation process. These changes would be fair to everyone and there would be Taxation with Representation.
William Flythe
Southport
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