Local officials discuss legislative priorities for new year

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PITTSBORO — Local elected officials from across the county gathered at the Chatham Agriculture & Conference Center on Monday morning for the annual Legislative Breakfast, focused on discussions about local issues with Chatham County’s local legislative delegation.

The priorities of the county included addressing rural broadband, supporting construction and renovation projects at public schools and improving water quality. The county manager’s office lobbied for Rep. Robert Reives II (D-Dist. 54) and Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-Dist. 20) to push for these goals and more during the current legislative session in Raleigh.

While education and town officials from Pittsboro, Siler City and Goldston were in attendance, the priorities shared were defined by the Chatham County government.

The legislative goal packet given to attendees contained 15 total goals. Many of the goals addressed were also aligned with goals from the North Carolina Association for County Commissioners (NCACC). Karen Howard, the chairperson of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, also chairs NCACC’s legislative goals committee.

Each goal was briefly presented to Murdock and Reives by members of county staff.

Education

The N.C. General Assembly is the primary funder of public schools in the state. Chatham County urged for more funding for schools to aid with infrastructure and capital improvement projects. Chatham County Manager Dan LaMontagne said this was especially important amid the impending growth to the county, which will likely bring in new families and create problems if Chatham County Schools does not expand capacity.

County staff urged supporting legislation that allows “equitable access to Needs-Based Public School Capital Funds.” This legislation would eliminate the current five-year prohibition of receiving funds from the Public School Building Capital Fund. It would also allow for more funding to be used for construction, renovations and improvements.

Supporting this legislation was the second-highest legislative priority of the NCACC.

Another way to bring funding to public schools would be through the longstanding controversial Leandro Remedial Plan, which would allocate billions of dollars in state funding to public schools over the next five years. Murdock and Reives said, however, they were not optimistic that the funding would move forward in this session. The Republican-led N.C. Supreme Court is likely to strike down any rulings in favor of releasing the funding to schools.

Even if Leandro were approved, Reives said the plan is now in need of an update. He believes the remedial plan, which was first crafted in 2017, no longer fits the changing needs of public education amid challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.

“We keep focusing on these things like the so-called ‘Parents Bill of Rights,’ but that doesn’t address the issues in the classroom,” Reives told officials at the breakfast. “We need to use our education dollars to help kids.”

Murdock also said she was not optimistic about Leandro funding moving forward in its entirety. She said, however, that a recent financial forecast presented to the State Senate showed a more than $3 billion budget surplus, and she advocated for those dollars to be put toward public schools.

Broadband

The top priority of NCACC, and high on the list for Chathamites, is removing the rural broadband barrier. County staff advocated for continued funding for broadband through state grants and loan money.

LaMontagne said breaking this barrier would include allowing more county involvement in broadband initiatives, including potentially leasing county assets to broadband providers or creating public broadband infrastructure.

“Large telecom companies restrict access to this valuable resource and foster an environment where we are unable to determine who truly is not being served,” the legislative goals packet reads.

Chatham County officials advocated for legislation to remove barriers to broadband because they collectively viewed it as critical to healthcare, education and livelihood in the modern world. Reives, a Goldston resident, said he intimately understands the struggles of broadband inaccessibility in the region.

“Broadband has been an issue for 12 years now,” Reives said. “I hope we can get past this ‘private versus public,’ because what it comes down to is we need rural electrification. If we don’t get it, people don’t have access to essential services.”

Workforce

While not explicitly addressed as a goal in Monday’s breakfast, the hot topic of the morning was workforce. Challenging topics like affordable housing, social services and improving local control all turned to conversations about Chatham’s workforce.

Discussions of supporting the workforce were two-fold: ensuring strong recruitment and competitive salaries to bring people to the county, then supporting that workforce with places to live so their tax dollars would come back to Chatham.

This came up in discussions of social services programs because, like many departments throughout the county, they find themselves short-staffed. Jennie Kristiansen, director of the county’s Social Services department, said one way to combat this would be by strengthening behavioral health services to address the growing mental health crisis among N.C. youth.

“There’s no easy answers when you talk about the complexities of mental health,” Kristiansen told local legislators. “But anything to support workforce and behavioral health care, crisis services, etc. So flexibilities in how are treatment care is set up and managed would be tremendously beneficial.”

Dr. Anthony Jackson, Chatham County Schools superintendent, also said funding to improve existing teacher and staffing shortages was a necessity for both aspects of the workforce problem. He said the district was in need of teachers to ensure the students coming out of CCS are prepared for the work environment, and ready to reap the rewards of the opportunities coming to the county.

Workforce necessities also emerged in discussions of future professional development and training for VinFast and Wolfspeed employees. Central Carolina Community College President Lisa Chapman lauded the planned Moore Center in Sanford, which will be used to train VinFast employees, as “a highlight of the southeastern United States” when completed. She said, however, there is still a need to support the new building and the community college at the state level to ensure its success.

“What’s critically important to us is that we’re growing our own talent,” Chapman said. “So all of this training is happening with our local residents. They’re a part of it, and they can benefit from it.”

Reives said he understands the need to promote a good workforce to keep people in Chatham amid the opportunities coming to the region.

Full Chatham County Commissioners 2023 Legislative Goals packet:

 

For more information visit www.chathamcountync.gov/government/board-of-commissioners.

Reporter Ben Rappaport can be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport

Chatham County Commissioners, Rep. Robert Reives II, Sen. Natalie Murdock, Legislative Breakfast