Author Archives: zaned

Counties in North Carolina are taking a more direct role in providing water and sewer service than they did in the past. Historically, counties relied on municipalities or independent authorities to deliver these services, focusing instead on public health oversight through well and septic regulation. That approach is changing as development spreads beyond municipal boundaries, infrastructure funding increasingly flows directly to counties, and water and sewer service becomes more closely tied to public health and economic development. Today, counties are more actively planning, financing, and managing utility infrastructure themselves, or working with utilities and neighboring governments, to ensure reliable service and support growth.

When most people hear the title finance officer, they picture someone working on spreadsheets, paying bills, or preparing financial statements. While those tasks are part of the job, the role of a finance officer in North Carolina local government goes much deeper. It is a statutory office with legal responsibility for protecting the public’s money and making sure every dollar is managed according to state law.

As discussed in a previous post, local governments in North Carolina have a range of options for working together to provide water and wastewater services. At one end of this spectrum is the ability to create a separate legal entity whose sole purpose is to operate these services, often on a regional scale. Several statutory structures allow for the creation of such entities.

As discussed in previous posts, North Carolina law authorizes local governments to provide water and sewer services using a range of legal structures. These include direct ownership and operation as a municipal or county public enterprise, contractual interlocal arrangements among governments, and regional entities such as sanitary districts, water and sewer authorities, and county water and sewer districts. Each structure reflects different legislative choices about governance, financing, service areas, and the allocation of authority among participating governments.

North Carolina law imposes a wide range of financial management duties on local governments (including public authorities). Some of those duties are assigned specifically to the finance officer. Others belong to the budget officer or governing board. Many are shared. Together, these responsibilities form the legal framework for how public money is budgeted, received, obligated, disbursed, and accounted for.