As the North Carolina General Assembly wrapped up its first week back in session in Raleigh, local elected officials are asking for more than $38 million from the state legislature to address Fayetteville's needs.
State Sen. Val Applewhite (D-Dist. 19), State Rep. Charles Smith (D-Dist. 44) and State Rep. Diane Wheatley (R-Dist. 43) convened Friday at Segra Stadium in Fayetteville with city council members, along with the city’s legislative lobbyists. The meeting came as leaders prepared for May discussions on the city’s upcoming fiscal year’s budget, and as the General Assembly looks to make refinements to the state’s budget during the short session.
The Fayetteville City Council is seeking assistance from the city’s legislative delegation to secure funding or pass legislation on a wide range of topics, including measures to improve quality of life, economic development, public safety and transportation in Fayetteville.
The city’s budget requests for the state include:
In addition, Fayetteville is asking state representatives to support policy initiatives and legislative opportunities on topics including:
The city’s lobbyists, from the lobbying firm Checkmate Government, expressed enthusiasm about supporting Fayetteville during the short session.
“Y'all are at such a unique nexus point of economics, community and ecosystem, and so much of the political spectrum, fulcrums in this greater Cumberland County area with the congressional districts and how that breaks down,” lobbyist Nelson Freeman said, addressing state and local elected officials at Friday’s meeting.
Local concerns
A major concern brought up by Mayor Mitch Colvin and other council members was the city’s need to find new and additional income sources for ongoing projects, with the goal of encouraging growth and reducing the existing burden on taxpayers. Colvin highlighted Fayetteville’s need to secure funding for recreation projects that will bring more people to Fayetteville, including $16.3 million to complete the planned McArthur Road Sports Complex, which he said would attract travel sports teams to the Fayetteville area.
The mayor also said Fayetteville was constricted in its ability to generate new revenue because it does not receive a share of Cumberland County’s special sales taxes, such as ABC liquor sales tax, occupancy tax or food and beverage tax. Most of the county’s ABC liquor stores are located in Fayetteville, but the sales tax they generate go to the county.
“I know how the General Assembly feels on taxes and not wanting to get into a city-county dispute,” Colvin said. “But at the end of the day, we’re going to need a policy decision made from the state level that is fair and equitable, that helps us continue to grow this community and not tax our citizens.”
Another impediment to Fayetteville’s revenue stream is the loss of sales tax revenue the city will experience as Cumberland County prepares to switch from a per capita to ad valorem sales tax structure, Council Member Deno Hondros said. The per capita method allocates revenues based on each municipality’s population in comparison to the county’s population, while the ad valorem method allocates revenue by comparing each municipality’s property tax rate to the county’s property tax rate.
Hondros noted that Fayetteville has historically used its sales tax revenue, boosted by population growth in the per capita taxation system, to keep up with growing inflation pressures.
“By the change in the sales tax distribution, we lose that growth of income,” Hondros said. “So we have to find it elsewhere.”
What do Cumberland County’s representatives plan to prioritize?
Here’s what three representatives who attended Friday’s meeting with Fayetteville City Council members said they would like to prioritize during the short session now underway:
Rep. Wheatley
Wheatley, who is on the Military and Veterans Affairs House Standing Committee, said she is focused on addressing a number of projects to support the large number of veterans in Cumberland County. One issue Wheatley highlighted was expediting wait times for veterans to receive treatment at Veterans Affairs hospitals and medical facilities.
“I think it's important that we make sure these veterans aren't waiting in long lines and six months to get treatment at a VA hospital,” Wheatley said. “So I don't know what we can do about that, but the whole system has always been — it's not an easy system to work.”
Wheatley is also interested in securing a new State Veterans Home in Fayetteville. The state-owned nursing home for veterans closed its doors on Feb. 1, just over two months after the N.C. Dept. of Military and Veteran Affairs (DMVA) announced its unexpected closure. She said she still has questions about the circumstances under which the home was shut down, and is eager to work with the new secretary of the DMVA, former State House Rep. Grier Martin, to secure a permanent state veterans home in Cumberland County.
“I wrote a letter to the previous general asking not only for it, for a better explanation, but also that they would assure us that that nursing home facility would stay here in Cumberland County for our retired veterans that needed it for their families,” Wheatley told CityView. “I got a voice assurance, but I'm wanting more than that. So we're going to continue to work on this, and we're going to work on it diligently for the veterans that need this service.”
Another priority for Wheatley is to push for the completion of upgrades at the Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery in Spring Lake. Wheatley wants to “make it the military cemetery that all of us that have been around the military all our lives expect to see,” the representative told CityView.
“It's looking better, but it's not where we want it — so that'll be the other thing that we'll carry to Grier Martin as well,” Wheatley said.
Rep. Smith
Smith told CityView there are several items he hopes to address during the legislative short session, but his top priority is securing additional funding for Cumberland County’s WORTH (We Overcome Recidivism Through Healing) Court. The court, which was established in 2019 in Cumberland County, reviews cases of human trafficking and assists victims by connecting them with resources, such as counseling, medical care, education and job skills.
Smith said he believes the court has been “successful in helping turn lives around” of people who have experienced trafficking and received support through the court. The court has requested $344,000 in state funding over two years, Smith said.
“That's something I was disappointed to not get funding for in the long session,” Smith told CityView. “So that's probably my number one focus going into the short session.”
Smith said other top priorities included securing $3 million in funding for Fayetteville’s planned police training center, which he said will serve officers throughout the region.
“I would put that certainly into my top three with the focus really being on trying to make it a regional facility where we can bring in officers from other communities,” Smith said.
Smith also said he is interested in securing some funding for the McArthur Road Sports Complex, a major request of city council members during Friday’s meeting. The complex would feature baseball and softball fields, concession and restroom facilities, ample parking and green space. Though Smith said he wanted a breakdown of the city’s $16.3 million request, the representative expressed enthusiasm for the proposed complex, having played travel baseball in Fayetteville when he was growing up.
“Certainly, we could step into a void with a nice regional field, so that would be up there as well,” Smith said.
As for Fayetteville’s other legislative priorities, Smith said “all of that would be on my list in the long session.”
Sen. Applewhite
Applewhite said one of her priorities in the short session was to support the expansion of water infrastructure in Cumberland County. The state senator said Cumberland County missed out on funding for water infrastructure during the previous legislative session, and she plans to introduce a bill during this session to “try to get some of that money back” as the state budget gets refined. Applewhite’s comments came after city council members expressed interest in finding ways to expand water and sewer infrastructure in the county.
Applewhite also expressed an interest in helping improve interstate connectivity to Fayetteville, particularly in linking I-95 and I-295 to the proposed I-685 through Cumberland County. Fayetteville is among several cities hoping for a connection to the new state highway, though it remains unclear which cities the proposed highway will pass through, Applewhite said.
“I'm not saying we're late to the party, but we’re late to the party,” Applewhite said. “So I think that, if we could, it makes sense to have a meeting just about that [I-685] and really have a plan of action.”
To read a full list of Fayetteville’s state legislative priorities, click here.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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