Midsize counties confront fiscal pressures, federal shifts

Kevin Leonard lamented that as much of a challenge as disaster recovery, federal cost shifts and ballot measures pose to counties, the most universal comes from messaging to the public.

“Ninety seconds is about all you get” to explain something complex, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners executive director told the Mid-Sized County Caucus Saturday afternoon.

“[Counties] are being tested in ways that we haven't seen in a very long time.”

Counties in his state are continuing recovery from Hurricane Helene, face property-tax constitutional amendments on November ballot and, along with nine others, are shouldering more of a burden to administer the Supplemental Food and Nutrition program.

Converse County, Wyo. Commissioner Jim Willox noted while assessed property valuations have grown tenfold in his oil and gas-rich county, a ballot initiative to cut primary-residence property taxes by 50% would devastate neighboring counties that lean on residential taxes — and the special districts funded solely by mill levies. 

Be blunt, he said: “If people want to pay less taxes, they have to expect less in return.”

Shawnee County, Kan. Commissioner Aaron Mays recounted a spending-cap bill that “wouldn’t die,” which would have let a small number of voters petition to roll a county budget back to the prior year’s total. Despite two vetos, Mays expects it to return, calling it part of a pattern in which “local control in the state house means controlling the locals in the courthouse.” 

Danny de Hoog, deputy director of government relations for Maricopa County, Ariz., described more than a dozen bills seeking to preempt local zoning for data centers, solar and small modular nuclear reactors — none of which cleared a divided state government.

Data centers dominated the audience discussion. Officials traded notes on moratoria, infrastructure cost-shifting and misinformation spreading on social media. Several panelists framed the projects as a possible offset to shrinking residential revenue, if paired with local zoning control. 

Fire, EMS and emergency communications

A three-member panel tackled a service model under strain. Jim Albright, emergency services director for Guilford County, N. C., described “five or six crises” compounding at once. His county’s volunteer ranks have fallen to fewer than 350 today from 1,200 in 1989, with only about 150 cleared for interior firefighting — mirroring a national volunteer count the National Volunteer Fire Council says is the lowest since it began measuring in 1984. Apparatus costs have doubled in five to seven years, while NFPA standards, municipal annexations and a possible state property-tax cap could squeeze antiquated budgets.

Kevin Jones, EMS division chief in Olathe, Kan., and EMS section chair for the International Association of Fire Chiefs, pressed two federal priorities: reimbursement for whole blood carried in the field — offered by only about 300 of the nation's 13,000-plus fire departments at $1,300-$1,800 a unit — and allowing “treatment in place,” since EMS agencies are generally paid only when they transport a patient. He also touted mobile integrated health programs that pair paramedics with nurse practitioners, noting that 80% of fire-service calls are now medical.