A judge on Monday struck down as unconstitutional the 2013 law that would transfer control of the city water system to the Metropolitan Sewerage District, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported Tuesday.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. found that the law violates a prohibition in the state constitution against “local” laws on certain subjects, “lacks a rational basis” and calls for an “unlawful taking.”
Even if the law passed the constitutional hurdles, the city would be owed compensation for the water system, Manning wrote, something the law does not provide for.
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