One implication of the findings of By the Numbers 2001 is that current legislative efforts to give local governments additional authority to levy sales or other taxes may be unjustified, said John Hood , president of the Locke Foundation. Since most counties have increased the share of their citizens' income taken in taxes during the 1990s, there appears to be few communities where existing taxes are inadequate to fund necessary local services. The report also ranks the state's cities and towns according to taxes and fees collected per resident. Among the 22 largest cities, Charlotte, Durham, Chapel Hill, Concord, Greensboro, and Hickory had the highest tax and fee burdens. This is the third annual release of By the Numbers , which was co-authored by economist Michael Lowrey and policy analyst Erik Root .
Readers can look up statistics for each city, town, and county in the state.
Sports clubs are defined as businesses that have two tennis courts or an 18-hole golf course. The bill has been pushed for years in varying forms as an economic development tool and as a way to allow clubs that have had ABC permits for years to keep them if a judge rules in a pending decision that current law allowing such permits is unconstitutional. Only eight N.C. counties still use punch-card ballots. The bill requires those counties to replace the punch-card machines but only after they accumulate the money necessary to do so. Butterfly ballots are not used in the state.