(a)        Formal requests for elections on the question of authority to appropriate nontax revenues or levy special taxes, or both, and to issue bonds, when such elections are to be held for the purpose of establishing an institution, shall be originated and submitted only in the following manner:

(1)        Proposed multiple-county administrative areas: Formal requests for elections may be submitted jointly by all county boards of education in the proposed administrative area, or by petition of fifteen percent (15%) of the number of qualified voters of the proposed area who voted in the last preceding election for Governor, to the boards of commissioners of all counties in the proposed area, who shall fix the time for such election by joint resolution on a date permitted by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-287, which shall be entered in the minutes of each board.

(2)        Proposed single-county administrative area: Formal requests shall be submitted by the board of education of any public school administrative unit within the county of the proposed administrative area or by petition of fifteen percent (15%) of the number of qualified voters of the county who voted in the last preceding election for Governor, to the board of commissioners of the county of the proposed administrative area, who shall fix the time for such election by resolution on a date permitted by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-287, which shall be entered in the minutes of the board.

(b)        Formal requests for elections on any of the questions specified in (a) above, or on the question of increasing the maximum annual rate of special taxes for the financial support of an institution with a properly established board of trustees, may be submitted to the tax-levying authority only by such board of trustees.

(c)        All formal requests for elections regarding the levy of special taxes shall state the maximum annual rate for which approval is to be sought in an election.

(d)       Nothing in this section shall be construed to deny or limit the power of the tax-levying authority of an institution to hold elections, of its own motion, on any or all the questions provided in this section, subject to the provisions of this Article. ?(1963, c. 448, s. 23; 1979, c. 462, s. 2; 2013-381, s. 10.19; 2017-6, s. 3; 2018-146, ss. 3.1(a), (b), 6.1.)