"Bigger Than a Bill” How Local Voices Forced a Change to Senate Bill 214

Should Franklin County be able to annex land it wants without the permission of the surrounding counties? 

That’s what a part of Senate Bill 214 did as it was scheduled for a vote on April 28. But amid fierce local opposition, the controversial bill was sidelined, according to the News & Observer.

The dispute is about the future of Franklin County’s water supply as the county continues to grow. 

This issue isn’t going away. So we are reporting here how local and state officials view whether Franklin should be able to take land from its neighbors without their permission, as the original bill had proposed. 

Here’s what local leaders had to say about the proposal:

Henderson (in Vance County) Mayor Melissa Elliott spoke about the provision at a press conference hosted by Rep. Rodney Pierce on Tuesday, April 28. “This is bigger than a bill,” she said. “This is an environmental justice fight, this is a local control fight, this is a moral fight. Because when decisions about land, water and power fall hardest on rural, economically distressed communities…we must tell the truth about what is at stake…This is about whether rural people have an equal standing in the decisions that shape their survival.” 

Melissa Dixon, attorney for the Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District, which manages water resources for Roanoke Rapids and the surrounding areas, called the bill “illegal… immoral… and unconscionable,” explaining that it is illegal under Article II of the North Carolina Constitution, which is meant to protect counties from exactly this kind of overreach.

Franklin County Commissioner Mark Speed (D, District 3) described in a statement on Facebook section 5 as “one county overriding another, with the General Assembly’s permission, and it sets a precedent that every county in this state should be alarmed by. If it can be done to Vance, Halifax, and Warren today, it can be done to any county tomorrow.”

N.C. Rep. Bryan Cohn (D, Granville, Vance) said Section 5 of the bill is “a direct hit to local control. It removes the ability of counties like Halifax, Vance, and Warren to have a say over their own land and infrastructure.” Cohn, who did not seek re-election for a second term representing District 32, called Section 5 “grossly unconstitutional.”

N.C. Rep Rodney Pierce (D, Halifax, Northampton, Warren) said he was “adamantly and unequivocally opposed to it" at a press conference he hosted at the Legislature on Tuesday. “This should not be a partisan issue,” he said. “The idea that one county can take property in another county without consent should concern you.”

James Gaillard, the Democratic nominee for NC Senate District 11, which covers Franklin, Nash and Vance counties, strongly opposed the bill in a social media post. “There are some things that we just should agree are nonpartisan,” he said. “As a landowner, whether I’m Democrat, Republican, Black, white — what I do with my land should be my business.”

N.C. Rep. Matt Winslow (R, Franklin, Nash) defended the bill, calling it a “targeted, common-sense solution” that he says is necessary because “good-faith negotiations between Franklin County and Henderson have yielded little progress on securing adequate additional water at reasonable rates.”  

N.C. Sen. Lisa Stone Barnes (R, Franklin, Nash, Vance) has not responded to a request for comment. 

Access to water is an ongoing issue in Franklin County – one that will only intensify as the county continues to grow. While the annexation issue is dead for now, this issue isn’t going away. But those who showed up to advocate on April 28 felt empowered to shape their future – and they won. 

Read more local coverage of this issue at the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald and The Franklin Times.