North Carolina's Local Government Commission voted Tuesday to assume control of the finances of two small towns, Ronda in Wilkes County and Rowland in Robeson County, after both failed to fix long-running budget problems despite formal warnings last month. Ronda's board has already begun the process of voluntarily dissolving the town altogether, while Rowland remains in what officials describe as continued fiscal trouble.
The commission's stated goal, according to the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer, is to make sure bills get paid and that residents in both towns keep receiving the services they need. LGC Chair Brad Briner said the priority is ensuring every North Carolina citizen receives needed services, and that the commission will act when local governments fail to fulfill their duty to constituents. Briner also said local governments should address financial problems before they spiral toward bankruptcy, according to the seed facts behind this report, first detailed by WBTV.
Ronda's Slow-Motion Collapse
Ronda's troubles had been building for more than a decade. The town has been on the state's Unit Assistance List, a designation for municipalities needing extra financial oversight, since 2015, according to FOX8 WGHP. The station reported that the state auditor's office found a recurring monthly shortfall of about $21,100 between what the town spent and what it brought in, though Ronda commissioners had separately said the town had $40,000 on hand and was losing roughly $25,000 a month — a discrepancy the dossier of records does not resolve.
The station's report also noted conflicting figures on how little money Ronda had left to draw on, with one account putting the town's primary investment account at about $5,134 and another putting it at roughly $5,100. Either way, the cupboard was nearly bare. The Journal Patriot reported that Ronda owed 12 past-due invoices to the Wooten Company for water-system work totaling $74,567, with the oldest invoice dating back to March 13, 2025.
An audit also turned up gaps in Ronda's bookkeeping: 248 of the 903 purchases made on a town credit card between June 2022 and June 2026 lacked supporting documentation, per the same Journal Patriot account. Carolina Journal reported that Ronda's broader financial concerns included repeated late audits, budget violations, problems with federal payroll-tax payments and persistent deficits in its water-and-sewer fund.
A 30-Day Warning, Then Dissolution
The Local Government Commission issued Ronda a resolution of notice and warning on September 1, giving the town's board 30 days to submit a plan of action addressing its financial-management failures, the Journal Patriot reported. The town showed no improvement by the time the commission met on October 6, and Ronda's board had already voted on September 8 to start the process of voluntarily dissolving the town rather than continue fighting its finances. The commission then voted unanimously to begin assuming control of Ronda's remaining operations.
Blue Ridge Public Radio reported last month that Ronda was weighing a voter referendum on whether to disband the town entirely, a path grounded in state law: under North Carolina General Statute 160A-870, residents may initiate a referendum on a resolution to dissolve a city.
Rowland's Unpaid Bills and Misused Grant Funds
Rowland's problems looked different but were no less serious. Its water and sewer system had been operating at a loss for four years, and the town had accumulated more than $150,000 in unpaid bills, according to Blue Ridge Public Radio. The station also reported that Rowland had used restricted grant money for purposes the grant terms did not allow, including covering payroll expenses.
Rowland has been on the Unit Assistance List since 2020, after also appearing on it in 2015 and 2016, Carolina Journal reported. The commission gave Rowland 30 days to submit its own plan of action explaining how it would correct the deficiencies. Town leaders reportedly said they believed Rowland was moving in the right direction, but the commission ultimately found that Rowland's leaders had not outlined a clear financial path forward, and the town remained in fiscal trouble. The LGC then voted to assume control of Rowland's finances as well.
Not the First Small Town to Lose Control
Ronda and Rowland join a short but growing list of North Carolina municipalities that have run into this kind of state intervention. The commission previously voted to impound the books of Pikeville and assume control of its finances until the town's fiscal health was restored, according to the state treasurer's office. It took similar action in Spring Lake, citing legal concerns while exercising its statutory authority over that town's finances beginning in October 2021.
The commission has also used lighter-touch tools against financial noncompliance elsewhere. Blue Ridge Public Radio reported that the LGC voted to withhold sales-tax revenue from 11 small towns that had fallen several years behind on required audits, a step short of a full takeover but aimed at the same underlying problem: towns that cannot keep their books in order risking the services residents depend on.
