The House Finance Committee has announced that it is going to meet and consider HB 524 at 8:30 A.M. Thursday, July 2, 2009 in Room 544 of the Legislative Office Building (LOB).

Please make every effort to be there. We have a long process to go through to end up with annexation reform, and this is another of those steps, but it will be one of the most important. The League has sent out a warning that there may be a vote amendment presented which will mean the end of annexations in North Carolina. This absurd warning is an effort to scare their folks to jam that room. We must remind all members of this committee that, even according to League representatives <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6261231945370110959>

, 57% by population of all annexations from 2000-2005 were VOLUNTARY.

In other words these people ELECTED to join a city.

Well, we are not scared. We are just angry. Please make every effort to show up and be civil. Yea, I know, that seems to do us no good, but by God, we should not be a mob. We are passionate, articulate and we know more about this law than most of the folks voting on it, but we owe it to ourselves to be civil.

So, please try to attend this important meeting.

And Senate Sub-Committee meetings continued on Monday. Another informal meeting scheduled for next Monday. This sub committee is run by Senator Clodfelter.

Three links to tell you about and then I am outta here.

Here is Rep Jones <http://tinyurl.com/EarlJones2> and his now famous "Democracy is chaotic enough." comment,

and Rep Bordsen's <http://tinyurl.com/AliceBordsen> comment of how it is unfair for city citizens to pay for water and sewer infrastructure for the annexed area.

The folks at Kinston have professionally produced a great 30 min video on annexation <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5AHtPu0_q0>

. That will bring up Part 1 and you can continue to Part 2 and Part 3 from there.

And our own Keith Bost from Davidson County has sent along this video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=admhY30qnVI>

. Thanks Keith --- he has plans for more.

Finally, please view/distribute this PDF <http://ncreform.org/Documents/Why.pdf>

that explains WHY we are angry about the 'reform' process so far.

Enjoy and sure hope to see you on Thursday, bright and early.

Doug Aitken

FAC

House Finance Committee (Email all Democrats HERE <mailto:Joe.Hackney@ncleg.net,Becky.Carney@ncleg.net,Bill.Faison@ncleg.net,Bill.Owens@ncleg.net,Deborah.Ross@ncleg.net,Dewey.Hill@ncleg.net,Earl.Jones@ncleg.net,Hugh.Holliman@ncleg.net,Jennifer.Weiss@ncleg.net,Kelly.Alexander@ncleg.net,Larry.Hall@ncleg.net,Larry.Womble@ncleg.net,Paul.Luebke@ncleg.net,Pryor.Gibson@ncleg.net,Van.Braxton@ncleg.net,Sandra.Hughes@ncleg.net,Tricia.Cotham@ncleg.net,William.Wainwright@ncleg.net,legislators@fairannexation.com>

) (Email all Republicans HERE

<mailto:Curtis.Blackwood@ncleg.net,Dale.Folwell@ncleg.net,Danny.McComas@ncleg.net,Darrell.McCormick@ncleg.net,David.Lewis@ncleg.net,Edgar.Starnes@ncleg.net,John.Blust@ncleg.net,Johnathan.Rhyne@ncleg.net,Julia.Howard@ncleg.net,Mitchell.Setzer@ncleg.net,Paul.Stam@ncleg.net,Thom.Tillis@ncleg.net,William.McGee@ncleg.net,legislators@fairannexation.com>