Glossary

Absentee ballot — an official list of candidates on which voters who cannot get to the polling place on election day indicate their votes

Allocate — to set aside money for a specific purpose.

Annexation — the legal process of extending municipal boundaries and adding territory to a city or town.

Appropriate — to authorize the amounts of money government can spend.

Assessed value — the value assigned to property by government to establish its worth for tax purposes.

Assessment — a charge imposed on property owners for building streets, sidewalks, water lines, sewers, or other improvements government makes to the property.

Ballot — an official list of candidates on which the voter indicates his or her votes.

Bond — a loan to governments that is made when people buy the government's commitment to repay the loan, plus interest.

Business development corporation — a group of people legally organized as a corporation to encourage economic development.

Capital — facilities used to produce services. Local governments' capital includes land, buildings, equipment, water and sewer lines, city streets and bridges.

Chamber of commerce — a group of business people formed to promote business interests in the community.

Charter — the document defining how a city or town is to be governed and giving it legal authority to act as a local government.

Citation — an official summons to appear before a court to answer a charge of violating a government regulation.

Civil — concerning government's role in relations among citizens. Civil violations are different than criminal violations in that they are not offenses against all the people and are not prosecuted by the district attorney. When governments are involved in civil disputes, they are simply another party in the case, just like a person or a private corporation.

Coastal plain — the eastern region of North Carolina, extending approximately 150 miles inland from the coast. The western border of the regional is usually defined as the western boundaries of Northampton, Halifax, Nash, Johnston, Harnett, Hoke, and Scotland counties. This region includes 41 counties.

Compost — decayed material which is used as fertilizer.

Contract — an agreement made between two or more people or organizations.

Corporation — a group of persons formed by law to act as a single body.

Council-manager plan — an arrangement for local government in which the elected legislature hires a professional executive to direct government activities.

Crime — an act that is forbidden by law. A crime is an offense against all of the people of the state, not just the victim of the act.

Debt service — payments of principal and interest on a loan.

Desalinization — the process by which the salt is taken out of sea water.

Developer — a person or business that builds houses or prepares land for building.

Dispatcher — a person who gives emergency workers information so that those workers can respond to emergencies.

Economic development — activities to create new jobs and additional sales and other business.

Expenditures — money spent.

Extraterritorial land-use planning jurisdiction — the area outside city limits over which a city has authority for planning and regulating land use.

Favoritism — hiring or giving favorable treatment to an employee because of friendship.

Federal — a system with separate state and national governments. The United States has a federal system of government. We also use the term "federal government" to refer to the national government of the United States.

Fiscal year (FY) — the twelve-month period used by government for record keeping, budgeting, taxing, and other aspects of financial management.

Food stamps — a program to help people with financial need buy food. The program issues vouchers to be used like money for purchasing food. This is a federal program, but is administered by county departments of social services in North Carolina.

Fund balance — money a government has not spent at the end of its fiscal year.

Gasoline tax — a tax placed on purchases of gasoline.

General obligation bond — a loan that a government agrees to repay using tax money, even if the tax rate must be raised.

Grant — money given by state or federal government to local governments to fund local projects.

Greenspace — an area that is kept undeveloped to provide more open land in or near a city.

Ground water — water that collects underground.

Impurities — materials that pollute or keep whatever they are in from being pure.

Incident report — a report that a police office writes describing a crime or other problem situation.

Incineration — the safe burning of wastes.

Incorporation — the legal process of creating a new corporation.

Infrastructure — basic public services such as water, sewers, and roads that are needed for economic development.

Initiative — a way in which citizens propose laws by gathering voter signatures on a petition. Only a few cities and no counties in North Carolina are authorized to use initiative.

Installment-purchase agreement — an arrangement to buy something in which the buyer gets to use the item while paying for it in regularly scheduled payments. If the buyer fails to complete payments, the seller can reclaim the property.

Interest — a charge for borrowed money that the borrower agrees to pay the lender.

Interest rate — a percentage of the amount borrowed that the borrower agrees to pay to the lender as a charge for the use of the lender's money.

Intergovernmental assistance — money given to local governments by state and federal governments to help meet specific needs.

Jurisdiction — the right to use legal authority, or the territory over which a government can use its authority.

Leachate — water that picks up impurities as it seeps through buried material.

Levy — to impose a tax by law.

Liability — the extent to which people can be assessed damages because of their mistakes.

Local act — a state law that applies to only one local government.

Mandate — a legal order by which one government requires action by another government.

Mandated service — a program which local governments must provide because of requirements from state or federal government.

Medicaid — a program designed to pay for medical care for people in financial need. This is a federal program, but is administered by county departments of social services in North Carolina.

Merit — hiring or promoting based on a person's ability to do the job or performance on the job.

Mountain counties — the western region of North Carolina, extending eastward from the Tennessee border to the eastern boundaries of Alleghany, Wilkes, Caldwell, Burke, and Rutherford counties. This region includes 23 counties.

Mulch — material put around plants to prevent the growth of weeds and keep the soil from drying out.

Municipality — a city, town, or village which has an organized government with authority to make laws, provide services, and collect and spend taxes and other public funds.

Mutual aid agreement — commitments of local governments to assist each other, such as in dealing with emergencies.

Nepotism — hiring or giving favorable treatment to an employee because he or she is a member of one's family.

Opponent — a person or organization that is against a proposal.

Optional service — a program that a government decides to provide to meet the needs or requests of its residents.

Ordinance — a law passed by a local government's governing body.

Partisan — involving political parties.

Patronage — hiring or giving favorable treatment to an employee because he or she is a member of one's political party.

Per capita — for each person.

Personal property — things people own other than land and buildings.

Personnel — the people who work for a government, company, or other organization.

Petition — a request for government action signed by a number of voters.

Piedmont — the central region of North Carolina, including Surry, Yadkin, Alexander, Catawba, and Cleveland counties on the west and Warren, Franklin, Wake, Chatham, Lee, Moore, and Richmond counties on the east. This region includes 36 counties.

Political party — a group of people who organize to win elections, operate government, and make public policy.

Poll tax — a tax people had to pay in order to be able to vote.

Polling place — an official place for voting.

Population — all the people who live in a place.

Powell Bill — a North Carolina state law that allocates part of the state's gasoline tax to municipal governments for them to build and repair city streets.

Precinct — a district for organizing voters and voting. Usually there is one polling place for each precinct.

Principal — the amount of money borrowed.

Privatization — government buying a service from a business instead of producing the service itself.

Property tax — a tax placed on the assessed value of property to be paid by the owner of that property.

Property tax rate — a percentage of the assessed value of property that determines how much tax is due for that property. In North Carolina property tax rates are expressed as dollars of tax per hundred dollars of assessed value. Thus, a tax rate of $.50 means that each property owner must pay $.50 for each $100 of property he or she owns.

Proponent — a person or organization that supports a proposal.

Proposal — a suggestion put forward for approval.

Real property — land and buildings and other improvements on it.

References — people who know how well someone did on a previous job or about that person's other qualifications for a job.

Referendum — an election in which citizens vote directly on a public policy question.

Regional council — an organization of local governments to deal with their mutual problems. There are 17 regional councils covering North Carolina.

Revenue — the amount of money that a government receives.

Revenue bond — a loan that a government agrees to pay off from fees collected through operating the facility built with that loan.

Rural — area where not many people live. The area outside cities and towns.

Sales tax — a tax on each purchase paid by the buyer at the time of purchase.

Septic tank — a container in which wastes are broken down by bacteria.

Sludge — the solid material separated from sewage.

Stereotype — a set of untested beliefs about the members of a group.

Subdivision regulation — rules for dividing land for development.

Subsidize — to reduce the amount users pay for a service by funding some of the cost from another source.

Subsidy — a payment which reduces the cost to the user.

Sue — to ask a court to act against a person or organization to prevent or pay for damage by that person or organization.

Surface water — water in lakes or streams.

Tax base — the value of the property, sales, or income being taxed.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) — federal government program of support for families in need; provides small payments to cover basic living expenses and assistance to help adults find and keep jobs.

Total assessed value — the sum of the assessed value of all the property a city or county can tax.

Unincorporated — the part of a county outside the cities and towns in that county.

Urban — area where people live close together. Most urban areas in North Carolina have been incorporated as municipalities.

Variance — permission to do something that is different from what is allowed by current regulations.

Volunteers — people who donate their time and effort.

Ward — a section of a jurisdiction for voting, representative, or administrative purposes.

Watershed — an area that drains water into a stream or lake.

Zoning — rules designating different areas of land for different uses. For instance, some land might be zoned for houses, other land for stores, and still other land for factories.