Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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MAY 10-16, 2017 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM OPINION Pigs, Power and Politics. Oh, My! by SHARON VALENTINE Publisher's Note: After reading Ms. Valentine's editorial submission re- cently published in the Fayetteville Ob- server (Sunday, May 7), we invited her to again opine on this very important and relevant issue. – Bill Bowman Hurricane Matthew's flooding exposed a sordid fact that we've denied for years. Hog lagoons are still intimately entwined with the Cape Fear River, and our once-pristine river (once cleanest in the state) is now on the endangered list. Ironically, the answer may be a case of "back to the future." We've been looking for a solution to hog lagoons for nearly 17 years. It is obvious that lawsuits, hog farm buyouts and further state regulations are not the solution. So, what is? In North Carolina, hog production is big business — to the tune of $1 billion. That's a lot of influence, and it should not be underestimated. It is rumored that nearly 80 percent of the General Assembly receives political contributions from the pork indus - try. To be fair, the industry is doing its share to resolve the issue, having invested in research. It is also working to resolve the environmental issues company-owned and contract pro - ducers' open air lagoons create. In 2000, then-Attorney General Easley made a deal with Smithfield Foods. The result was a $65 million grant from the company that would be used to develop new technologies to deal with hog waste. N. C. State received $15 million with the under - standing that the university would develop technologies that were less expensive than the current lagoon system and that Smithfield's company-owned farms would begin using the technologies once they were fully developed. One such innovation was a belt system that would separate solids and handle waste more easily. It also reduced odors. Another included an earthen digester to produce biogas. The projects came close to the cost criteria but were still pricier than the lagoon systems, so the projects did not go forward. In the meantime, a 10-year mora - torium on building new hog farms gave Smithfield the opportunity to sell off company-owned farms. Now the company didn't have to honor its commitment or endure the added expenses of installing any new technologies. That left $50 million in grant money. The funds were supposed to be administered by the Attorney General's office over a 25-year period. The monies were meant to be used as grants for projects that leveraged environmental improvements. The grants were to be competitive and would be for $1-2 million annually. The Attorney General would award them at his discretion. Projects awarded under this program in 2016 for grant year 2017 by then-Attorney General Cooper included: $150,000 to the Nature Con - servancy to buy 300 acres along the Black River; $425,000 to the N.C. Land Trust to buy 3,000 acres on the Wac- camaw River; $37,000 to N.C. State to develop a fact sheet for farmers to re- duce pollution along Millstone Creek and the Cape Fear River; and $250,000 to Ducks Unlimited to replace water control structures, remove debris and install pumps on the Pasquotauk and Tar-Pamlico River Basins. These projects are worthy environ - mentally, but they don't help family- owned hog farms in their efforts to find cost-efficient lagoon alternatives. They also don't reduce odors coming from the barns, spray fields and lagoons. Let's stop pointing fingers. Let's work together and support funding for collaborative partnerships that zero in on the core issue — solv - ing the lagoon problem. The good news is that there are several people and organizations working on this problem, including entrepreneurial farmers, small agricultural businesses, universities (including Fayetteville State University) and nonprofits like Cape Fear River Assembly and River Watchers. Smithfield is working on the issue, too.The bad news is that none of them are working together. They are operating independently of one another. Several of the technologies N.C. State worked on for well over a decade came close to meeting the environ - mental criteria. They could potentially meet the cost standards, too. Unfor- tunately, many of these technolo- gies have been shelved or are being worked on in isolation, negating their potential. We are running out of time. As the hog industry, much of which is Chinese-owned, relocates to drier climates out west, North Carolina family farmers are left wondering what the future holds for an industry that relies on hog lagoons located in flood plains. Meanwhile, nonfarmers continue to dread the heavy rains that fill our sewers with sludge and bring flies and Okay folks, open your wallets. Local government is about to get a little more expensive this year. County Manager Amy Canon last week gave her elected board dire news: The County is $27 million in the hole. And, find - ing money to shave that deficit doesn't look promising. Here's why. First, the property revaluation didn't produce the money County bureaucrats hoped for. In fact, property values took a nose dive since the last revaluation in 2009. I say most because I'm one of the few whose property actually went up a couple of grand. Lower property values means less property tax for county coffers. The County will have to up the tax rate by about four and a half cents to break even. They call that revenue neutral. That means the current county tax rate of 74 cents per $100 valuation could jump to 78.4 cents per $100 valua - tion. It's been at 74 cents for the past five years. There's also talk of another 3.9 cents on top of the 4.4-cent increase to get the County past the break- even point. The extra 3.9 cents would pay for a pay raise and health care insurance increases, repair county-owned buildings and keep jailed inmates healthy. Let's do the math. Your property tax on a $100,000 home will jump from $740 to $823, an $83 hike. If you have anything above a starter home, the chances of having a $100,000 house now-a-days is slim. So, if you have a $200,000 house, your bill comes to $1,646. Then there are the cars, motor - cycles, boats and the trailers to haul the toys. Each with its own tax-assessed price tag. The Fayetteville City Council at this writing hasn't reviewed its budget proposal. But remember, with property values down and a lot on their fiscal plate, the City Council also needs money to get out of the hole. The County is in a bind. The North Carolina General Assembly created Cumberland County. And it's that body of lawmakers who through the years compiled a list of what counties have to do to be counties. Among those duties is to pay for pro - grams the state deems necessary. Counties strug- gling to pay for those programs call them unfunded mandates. The list includes: sheriff's departments and jails, medical examiners, courts, building code en - forcement, public schools, social services, mental health, public health, board of elections, tax offices, child support and money for keeping FTCC build- ings and facilities maintained. Canon's proposed options are to cut back on services the County is not required to provide. As usual, closing a popular service like the library is among them. So is not filling unfilled jobs and eliminating real people from the payroll. Also, in this country we treat animals as dispos- able items, so cutting services at the animal shelter makes sense. And while Fayetteville — the sixth largest city in the state — is the shopping mecca of southeast North Carolina, the resulting sales tax yield is mea - ger compared to the other cities. Finally, the City of Fayetteville wants to rene- gotiate its agreement with the County on how they share sales tax proceeds. Currently, the city returns a part of the sales tax the County lost when Fayetteville annexed 42,000 people into the city back in 2005. According to Mayor Nat Robertson, the payback deal last year cost the city about $7 million. The mayor wants to keep more of it. He wants a reset of the agreed-upon formula. Folks, the money pie is getting smaller. Our city and county-elected leaders will be competing for more of what they believe is their fair share. They may even want to make the pie bigger by having you pay for it. More than ever, we need city and county-elected officials get out of their silos. We need them to cooperate for the benefit of all citizens. Open your Wallets by JASON BRADY JASON BRADY. Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. We've been looking for a solution to hog lagoons for nearly 17 years. SHARON VALENTINE., Com- munity Advocate. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200.