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levied. Any tax levied by a North Carolina local government must be authorized specificaliy by state statute and comply with the provision of the North Carolina Constitution requiring that taxes be uniformly applied.2~ (Impact fee classifications may be established that also meet this standard.) Ultimately, impact fees are distinguished from impact and other taxes by two requirements. First, an impact fee ordinance must be based on adequate enabling authority that serves to identify the fees as valid exercises of a local government's power to regulate land development and provide adequate public facilities. Second, the terms of the ordinance and the method for calculating the fees must meet the rational nexus test, the current constitutional standard for ensuring a proper connection between the burdens imposed on a developer and the benefits the development derives from the public faciIities provided. Enabling Authority for School Impact Fees Any local government adopting an impact fee ordinance must be prepared to demonstrate that the ordinance is based on state statutory or state constitutional provisions allowing it to be adopted. In some states, courts have found local government authorization for impact and related development fees in broad statutory grants of power to local governments, to plan and regulate land development and in broad "home rule" prov. ision, s in state constitutions delegating power to local governments to exercise any power that is not 21. "No class of property shall be taxed except by uniform rule, and every classification shall be made by general law uniformly applied .... "(emphasis added). N.C. CONST. ad. V, § 2. See First Carolina Investors v. Lynch, 78 N.C. App. 583, 337 S.E.2d 691,694 (1985} (uniformity requirement extends to license, franchise, and other faxes). 38 33