State county leaders explore transportation, energy, AI, disasters

Key Takeaways

Leaders of state associations of counties across the country came together Jan. 14 to discuss the county role in transportation, energy, artificial intelligence development and disaster response and reform amid shifts in federal policy and funding at the NACo National Council of County Association Executives meeting in Washington, D.C.

The meeting kicked off with remarks from NACo President J.D. Clark of Wise County, Texas.

“The state of America’s counties is strong, yet we are facing a complex intergovernmental landscape that is shaped and heavily influenced by the policy, funding and implementation decisions made by our federal and state counterparts,” Clark said. “Every day, county officials wake up to the unshakable reality that we are the bedrock of service delivery and accountability across this country.”

Teryn Zmuda, NACo’s chief research officer and chief economist, shared results from NACo’s County Pulse survey, which received responses from 1,600 county leaders. The survey helps NACo better understand the pressures on service delivery, fiscal health and the real-world impacts of federal and state policies, Zmuda said.

“At NACo, we are fond of saying, ‘If you have seen one county, you’ve seen one county,’ because the next one will undoubtedly be a little bit different,” Clark said. “But at our core, counties are uniquely positioned, sitting at the intersection of policy development and practical implementation.”

When asked if the nation is on the right track or the wrong track, 57% of the survey’s respondents said the nation is headed in the wrong direction. At the edges, 14% believe the county is strongly on the right track, and 36% believe it is strongly headed in the wrong direction. 

“Across these perspectives, though, counties’ distinct position of evaluation is rooted in a pragmatic approach to on-the-ground service delivery,” Zmuda said. “It's a mindset of keeping the car assembled, fueled and tuned for operation.” 

The responses, regardless of sentiment, reflect that counties have a shared commitment to public service at the county level, support for an intergovernmental approach and a desire for systems that enable effective local governance, Zmuda said. 

County leaders identified disasters and emergency management along with transportation and surface infrastructure as the top two most important categories of federal policy, according to the survey. 

County transportation networks

Counties own 44% of the nation’s roads, 38% of all bridges, 40% of public transit agencies and one-third of the nation’s airports, Clark noted. Counties “keep America moving, and keep America connected,” he added. 

Inflation has drastically driven up the cost of maintaining those roads, bridges and transit systems, which, along with aging infrastructure, exacerbates budget struggles, said Phillip Church, Oswego County, N.Y.’s county administrator. For rural counties with a small staff, grant writing is also a funding obstacle, he noted. 

“Small rural counties don’t have the resources to have professional grant writing staff,” Church said. “Sometimes we have to contract it out … so, sometimes the grants are difficult for us to access.”

Like many counties, Oswego County and Macomb County, Mich. have suburban and rural pockets. Addressing transportation needs for both can be a balancing act, said Steve Hobbs, Missouri Association of Counties’ executive director. 

Macomb County Commissioner Antoinette Wallace said that communication between commissioners is key to ensuring that transportation needs are met for constituents across districts. Oswego County hired an employee from one of its transportation vendors who helped identify route problems and get the word out to increase ridership, which has been beneficial, according to Church. 

“I think we’re seeing a common thread today, that communication is critically important,” Hobbs said. “And a seat at the table is even more important.”

Access and preserving and improving discretionary grant opportunities are priorities NACo has established for the Surface Transportation Reauthorization, according to Hobbs. 

NACo is advocating for more direct resources to counties, noted Matt Chase, NACo’s executive director. There are expected challenges in funding the reauthorization, amid declining gas tax revenue and the transformation of the traditional highway fund model, he said. The cost of transportation building and repair has also increased exponentially in recent years, he added. 

In a New York county, the cost to pave 40 miles 15 years ago is what it costs to pave only 10 miles now, Church said.

“The funding issue is front and center,” he said. “It’s got to keep up with the costs. And being able to access federal funds directly would increase the resources that we have locally to do that.”

Energy and AI development in local communities

The biggest issue currently coming out of data centers in Prince William County, Va. is their use of power, but the revenue they have brought in is something the county can’t ignore, said County Supervisor Victor Angry. It’s allowed the county to lower residential taxes and build a commercial tax base, he noted. 

Georgia’s data centers have helped revive economies in agricultural areas, where many of them are located, according to Doughtery County, Ga. Commissioner Clinton Johnson.

“Farming is not the way it was years ago,” Johnson said. “So, if you’re a person trying to make money off their farm, solar farms and digital campuses are now the way for families to sustain themselves.”

More regulation around data centers is being established as a response to widespread residential complaints of issues including noise, increased utility costs to individuals and environmental impact.

Chris Villines, executive director of the Association of Arkansas Counties, outlined the DATA Act, legislation recently introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), that would eliminate federal regulations and enable data centers, manufacturers and other energy-intensive industries to build customized electricity systems without impacting existing power grids. Congruently, tech companies are putting major investments into a new power source, micro-nuclear power sites, that the Department of Energy has fast-tracked, according to Villines. 

“So, the good news is, if these things work, they would fall right in line with the DATA Act, would not be connected to the grid and would be a sustainable power source for data centers,” Villines said. “The bad news is for us in county government … how are we going to walk through that and make sure that, if that is the direction we’re going, that we can keep our citizens OK with it?”

Disaster response and reform 

In recent years, nearly one-third of counties have experienced at least one federally declared disaster, according to Clark. Counties are not just stakeholders in disaster response, but partners in that work with state and federal agencies, according to Jim Henderson, Kentucky Association of Counties’ executive director. 

The FEMA Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is “one of the most significant overhauls of the disaster response network in decades,” said Henderson. NACo’s Intergovernmental Reform Task Force recommended components of the legislation, including the creation of a universal disaster application and a Public Assistance dashboard, Public Assistance program reform and loan interest payment relief. 

“At the core, it's designed to make disaster recovery faster, simpler and more responsive to the need of our communities,” Henderson said. 

FEMA is the “backbone of recovery” for counties, said Monroe County, Fla. Commissioner Michelle Lincoln. The county is still $7 million “in the hole” from Hurricane Irma (that hit the area in 2017) and waiting on more than $1 million in reimbursement from Hurricane Ian (2022), she said.

“When you start adding that all together,” Lincoln said, “if you are a fiscally constrained county, you are now even more in debt and asking for bonds and struggling even more to get your economy going again, which you definitely need to do if you’re a tourist destination.”

The success of American Rescue Plan Act funding going directly to counties is a lesson that should be applied to the disaster funding model, said Tangipahoa Parish, La. President Robby Miller. Miller noted that within his first three years in office, he signed more emergency declarations than his predecessor had over the course of 29 years.   

“With hurricanes and floods, within a matter of days, we can kind of tell you how bad it’s going to be — $60 million, $100 million,” Miller said. “Front us 50% of it and then make us track how we spend it. 

“That’ll reduce the cost, we’ll recover much quicker, get our people back and taken care of and the vendors will be able to do better work cheaper, because we have the dollars to pay them right away.”