Cumberland County adopts state legislative agenda with adjusted priorities and $93.5M ask

Cumberland County commissioners approved a resolution adopting the county’s state legislative agenda for the 2025–2026 North Carolina General Assembly biennium and modified the prioritization and dollar amounts after staff consultation with state legislative leadership.

Faith Phillips, assistant county manager and library director, presented a list of funding and policy priorities solicited from department heads and stakeholder meetings. The agenda originally listed requests including $5 million for Grays Creek public water, $50 million for countywide public water and sewer, $65 million for a new E. Smith school, $2 million for a regional aquatic center, $2 million for a mobile incident command unit, $500,000 for digital dispatch equipment, roughly $4 million for youth mental health, requests related to teacher compensation formula adjustments, support for rail routes (Fayetteville–Raleigh and Fayetteville–Wilmington), advocacy for the I‑685 route through Fayetteville and Cumberland County, and multiple policy asks (for example, volunteer services contracts and annexation law modifications).

County Manager Andrew Greer said he followed up with the delegation chair and recommended adjusting the priorities to request $15 million of direct state appropriations for infrastructure needs and an additional $15 million for the new E. Smith school, reducing the education ask relative to the initial presentation; he said the total modified ask would be about $93.5 million. Commissioner Adams requested that language stressing service to historically significant military communities be expanded to explicitly include minority students in Cumberland County; staff said they would add that language in the final draft.

Chairwoman Sterling Jones moved to approve the resolution with the manager’s prioritized adjustments and the additional language; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.