New report shows the 'State of the Counties'

Young's initiative demonstrates NCACC's value as a resource of accurate data, information

Politicians running for statewide offices frequently like to talk about the concept of "One North Carolina." But as county commissioners know, the reality in North Carolina is much different.

For the past year, a group of NCACC past presidents, appointed by 2007-08 NCACC President David Young and assisted by MPA students from North Carolina State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, identified important statistical benchmarks for counties and then researched those benchmarks. The result is a comprehensive State of the Counties report that was released during the 2008 Annual Conference in Craven County.

"When I became president last year, we were coming off one of the most successful legislative sessions in our history," said Young. "Our decades-long quest for Medicaid relief had been fulfilled, thanks to the concerted and dedicated efforts of many county commissioners.

"One of the reasons we were finally able to get this Medicaid burden removed was our ability to educate legislators on the impact Medicaid was having on each of our counties. When you could boil down the Medicaid impact to easy to comprehend numbers, our legislators finally started to understand what we had been talking about all these years.

"Our ability to advocate for all 100 counties is constrained by our ability to describe our counties' needs. We have to be able to provide reliable information about how issues affect us, and we need data to support our arguments."

The report identified several trends occurring in North Carolina's counties. The state's rapidly growing population is, naturally, resulting in more students for the public school system, but the researchers also identified that the percentage of citizens 65 and older is growing more rapidly than the overall population. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the report showed projections for each county through 2020 on the percentage of their residents who will be 65 or older.

The report also identified changes in agriculture. While the overall percentage of land used for farming in North Carolina declined by nearly 83 percent since 1948, the number of farms actually increased in 70 counties between 1997 and 2002. The survey identified "niche" type farms as being smaller and focusing on different crops, such as berries and fruits.

Identifying these trends is important because it will allow for counties to prepare for the different services and needs that will result from changing demographics and or new developments in agriculture.

Young conceived the idea for the report after realizing how important county-specific information was in helping convince legislators to come up with a permanent solution to relieving counties of the Medicaid burden.

"This report will become the source for information about counties, for legislators, for county officials, for media, for students," he said. "Over the past year, we have learned how important it is to have accurate information. This report will make it even easier for us to get what we need so we can continue to advocate for all counties."

Copies of the 232-page report were distributed Aug. 23 to county voting delegates during the business session. Other copies are being delivered to county managers during regional managers' meetings in September and October.

The past presidents and students identified 37 benchmarks to track. The book details 16 of these benchmarks for each county, such as unemployment rate, the percent of farmland in the county, high school graduation rates and the number of high school graduates who enroll in college or community colleges, the percentage of population that is Hispanic or 65 and older, and the amount of solid waste generated per capita.

According to NCACC Deputy Director Patrice Roesler, who coordinated the project, the real value of the report is not the printed document, but rather that the report will be a "living, breathing report" on the Association's educational Web site, www.welcometoyourcounty.org.

While the printed report contained only 16 of the benchmarks, the Web site includes graphs for all 37 benchmarks for each county. The long-range plan is to create a searchable database that will be continually updated and expanded as new data is available and new benchmarks are identified.

"We want this to be the source of information for county commissioners and for legislators when they are looking for information about their counties," said Roesler.

The searchable database is expected to be online by the end of the year, Roesler said. It can be accessed by visiting www.welcometoyourcounty.org and clicking on the State of the Counties report link.