Environment, education, public health and safety are county’s top legislative priorities

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved submitting Cumberland County’s state legislative goals to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, which will decide whether to consider advocating for them in the state legislature next year.

Counties submit goals every two years in the lead up to the North Carolina General Assembly’s long session. The next long session starts in January 2025. Cumberland’s goals, which were first presented at the board’s Aug. 6 agenda session, cover a wide range of topics, including the environment, public health, public education and public safety. 

Environment

Notably, the county’s priorities include asking the state legislature for funding for clean water and to pass regulations for companies that produce PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The county also expressed its support for the “concept of holding the chemical companies financially responsible for the cleanup and mitigation of these contaminants from water and wastewater, including landfill leachate.” In Cumberland County, chemical manufacturer Chemours and its predecessor, Dupont, dumped toxic chemicals into the Cape Fear River for decades, contaminating the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people in Fayetteville and the surrounding areas.

The two other environmental goals pertain to recycling and disposal. One is to increase the percentage of funding that counties receive as part of the state’s scrap tire tax and disposal program. The state levies a 1-2% tax on tire sales, which local governments receive and use to cover the costs of collecting, transporting and processing scrap tires. Counties currently receive 70% of those funds on a per capita basis, with 30% being sent to the state’s general fund. Cumberland County is asking the state to up the percentage counties receive. 

“Many government programs were already falling short and there were limited opportunities to recover the shortfall with grants,” the goal states. “With rising fuel prices and disposal costs, there will be additional shortfalls.”

Similarly, the county is asking for additional funding to support counties’ electronics recycling programs, noting that “not all manufacturers participate as they should, and requirements in the current law may be difficult to enforce with these manufacturers.” 

Public health, education

The county has one ask for education: for the state of North Carolina to “increase capital funding and the percentage of lottery proceeds appropriated to address school construction and facility needs.” Cumberland County received $21.9 million in funds for education programming from the North Carolina Education Lottery in 2023. According to lottery officials, about $3.9 million of those funds went to school construction and repair and renovation projects. 

As for public health, the county is hoping for the state to increase its level of recurring local public health funding. Overall, the county is asking for the state to support counties by giving $15 million in recurring appropriations to local health departments specifically “to enhance and spread public health interventions that address the mental health crisis in North Carolina.”

Public safety 

On the public safety front, commissioners are asking for increased state funding for the Emergency Management Division of the N.C. Dept. of Public Safety, where federal funding covers “more than 80% of workforce salaries.” Having regular state funding for the salaries can help ensure the division can maintain its workforce and capabilities, regardless of federal funding fluctuations, the county argues. 

“Allocating recurring state appropriations to fund salaries will ensure the division can fulfill its obligations to the local communities it serves, independent of fluctuating federal grant availability,” the goal states, “and maintain critical functions at a local level during a time of increasing disasters and emergency responses”

The Emergency Management Division helps local governments prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural or man-made emergencies, according to the North Carolina Emergency Management Act.

The county is also asking for increased financial compensation for volunteer fire departments when they respond to emergencies on interstate highways, through establishing a “pay per call” system. While state troopers respond to calls on interstate highways — instead of local law enforcement — local fire departments, which are often volunteer and are funded by taxpayers, are still responsible for responding to emergencies on state-maintained roads. 

“Rural low-wealth volunteer fire departments are seeing increasing calls to accidents along Interstate highways, and local taxpayers are bearing the costs of these calls, which can tie up the volunteer departments’ resources for several hours,” the county states.

Other takeaways from Monday’s meeting: 

• Medical school bonds: The board unanimously approved the issuance of $40 million in tax-exempt bonds from the Public Finance Authority to Cape Fear Valley Health to construct the Methodist University medical school. Cumberland County needed to approve the bond transfer because the school is being built in a location under its jurisdiction; the bond transfer occurs at no cost to the county. 
• Coliseum Inn: The board unanimously approved a resolution that will allow the county to take “such legal action as necessary” to finally tear down the troubled building of the former Coliseum Inn. According to a memo from the county attorney, owners had failed to complete the court-ordered demolition from June 2023, and so this will allow the county to finish the job. The county will pay for the demolition and be reimbursed with a lien on the property for any costs incurred by it.
• Solid waste contract: The board unanimously approved a three-year contract with waste management company GFL Environmental. According to the agreement, the county will pay no more than $12.4 million to transfer about half of the waste coming into the county’s Ann Street Landfill to a GFL facility in Sampson County. This is a temporary fix while the county looks to create a new transfer station for the Ann Street Landfill, which is expected to run out of space by 2030.

Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. To keep CityView Today going and to grow our impact even more, we’re asking our committed readers to consider becoming a member. Click here to join.