AN ACT requiring the joint legislative economic development and global engagement oversight committee to study and evaluate the three‑tier system for county economic status designations.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  The Joint Legislative Economic Development and Global Engagement Oversight Committee (the Committee) shall study the economic development tier ranking system of counties performed annually pursuant to G.S. 143B‑437.08, including (i) whether the General Assembly should eliminate the use of the economic development tier system for all noneconomic development programs and direct State agencies to develop other criteria, (ii) whether the General Assembly should end the use of the tier system for all economic development programs and direct the Department of Commerce to develop alternative funding criteria, (iii) alternatives to the tier system for assessing economic well‑being that may better serve counties with areas of prosperity and areas that lag in economic development, and (iv) efforts in other states and at the federal level to identify economic well‑being based on geographic boundaries other than county, and identify which incentive programs use a geographic factor other than tier level in their decision‑making process. The Committee shall report its findings, together with any recommended legislation, to the 2024 Regular Session of the 2023 General Assembly upon its convening.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.