The fragile math underneath N.C. local government

A new audit report shows that Columbus County lost 7.5% of its tax base in two years. The scary part is how it happened.

I just finished reading the book Strong Towns, a popular-yet-polarizing book in the urban planning field. It essentially describes most American cities as a Ponzi scheme and a ticking financial time bomb.

The basic argument is that local governments have built more infrastructure and assumed more obligations than their tax bases can ultimately support. Everything looks fine, until growth slows. Then it all falls apart.

Just this week, a new report from the state auditor’s office offered a remarkably clean North Carolina example of how this can start.

The audit covers Columbus County, a geographically huge but sparsely populated rural county in southeastern part of the state.

It found that the county’s tax base has eroded at an alarming rate. Between its 2024 and 2026 budgets, Columbus County lost roughly $328 million in taxable property value.

That is a loss of about 7.5% of the county’s tax base, in only two years.

But the more astounding part is how it happened. A decline that large sound…