Buncombe hires General Assembly lobbyist to tackle education, hotel tax, land use, more

ASHEVILLE - Buncombe voted to hire a lobbyist just before the beginning of the General Assembly's short session, which starts May 18 and adjourns June 30, a move elected officials say could impact local laws on hotel taxes, short term rentals and property taxes.

The Board of Commission on May 10 voted to contract with law firm Ward and Smith — which has offices in Asheville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh and Wilmington — to represent the county during the upcoming legislative session.

The firm charges $6,000 a month or $72,000 annually, according to a request for proposal documents and is currently finalizing its contract.

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Ward and Smith won out over eight other applicants, some who bid higher than $6,000 a month and some lower.

In its proposal letter, the firm touted deep connections with legislators in both political parties and its ability to successfully advocate on their clients' behalf.

"We have drafted, passed, amended, and defeated a wide-range of legislation for local government clients, and in doing so, have become skilled in the many pathways to legislative victories," the letter stated.

"We have successfully secured hundreds of millions of dollars in state appropriations for clients and have negotiated earmarks under both good and bad economic conditions."

Discussing the reason Buncombe wants a lobbyist, Buncombe's commission Chair Brownie Newman said it's about having a say in laws that may have long-lasting effects on the county.

"The General Assembly does have a lot of bearing on local government across the state. There's a lot of state funding that comes down to local government so making sure that the project's and priorities that we're interested in, having folks looking out for us could be valuable."

According to Buncombe's ask, Ward and Smith will represent the county on a variety of priorities including but not limited to:

• Early childhood education.

• Economic development.

• Environmental quality.

• Equity and inclusion.

• Planning and land use.

• Public safety.

• Public transportation.

• Renewable energy.

• Tax policies.

• Telecommunication.

Those are county staff's official priorities.

But commissioners have specifically stated they want the firm to home in on a number of specific items:

• Reducing property taxes, potentially through an extension of the Homestead Exemption.

• Opposing legislation that could potentially restrict local governments' power over short term rentals.

• Changing the Buncombe County hotel occupancy tax so that funds can be put into community infrastructure instead of advertising.

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That's according to Newman who first brought up the idea of a lobbyist during an early April commission briefing.

One of those priorities set to be trumpeted by commissioners at the May 19 commission meeting is hotel occupancy taxes.

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Currently the Tourism Development Authority gets most of its funding from a 6% occupancy tax on lodging sales in Buncombe. Increased sales mean more revenue for the agency.

Law requires 75% of those revenues to be spent on marketing and promotion and 25% on tourism related projects.

Commissioners are advocating for reform and will vote May 19 on a resolution stating as much.

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"This board intends to seek amendments to the statutory authorities for uses of the net proceeds of the Buncombe County occupancy tax, while adhering to the North Carolina House of Representatives' occupancy tax guidelines," that resolution states.

Those amendments include:

• Increasing the percentage of funding that can be invested in tourism related expenditures such as community infrastructure and related priorities.

• Decreasing the percentage allocated to advertising.

• Increasing the flexibility in the utilization of the non‐advertising portion of the funding.

Before the resolution was drafted, commissioners May 3 voiced disapproval for the way occupancy taxes currently are managed.

The lobbyist's No. 1 priority, regardless of when such a firm would start working for the county, should be the "passage of legislation to reform the current Buncombe County hotel occupancy fee so that more of these taxpayer dollars can be invested in true community needs and not the ever-growing and outrageous amount of funding that is spent on television ads and other advertising for the tourism industry," Newman said.

Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara also advocated for change in how taxes are allocated, and commission Parker Sloan said the hotel occupancy tax should be eliminated altogether.

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Andrew Jones is Buncombe County government and health care reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe hires lobbyist before NC general assembly short session