National County Commissioners’ Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

National County Commissioners’ Meeting

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

Every year, during early March, the National Association of County Commissioners meet in Washington, D.C. for their Legislative Conference.  This location conveniently allows federal officials to meet with and make presentations to commissioners, county managers and department heads from all over the United States.  Almost every federal agency and or department has made an appearance over the years.  This includes work sessions and addresses to the membership.  There were more than 2,000 people in attendance this year.  There are 3,144 counties in the 50 states.  Some years the President addresses the group.  This year we got the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Agriculture.  

I have not attended in 3 or 4 years.  The sessions I attend are always worth the effort.  Almost all the issues are national in nature.  However, there is always the PILT group (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes).  These are states that have very large acreages of Public Lands.  The Federal Government does not pay property taxes and counties in these states have difficulty in not having enough private property to tax.  Taxes on private property are still the way most counties raise revenue.  So, the federal government pays them money in lieu of the taxes they would have collected on the federal lands.  During 2024 about 610 million dollars were paid to PILT counties.  There is an easy solution to this situation.  The federal government could sell most of their land.  

I always attend the day-long environment, land use and natural resource conference.  We learned that a lot of the recent legislation is under review and the Trump Administration has requested many lawsuits be put on hold for at least 60 days for their review.  Many of these Democrat inspired lawsuits may be dropped or negotiated away.

One example of an issue that has been a political football for more than 25 years is whether, or not, wetlands that are not connected by flowing water are to be regulated the same as “flowing water wetlands”.  There are hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands in North Carolina that are not connected (isolated from) “flowing water wetlands”.  The issue made its way to the Supreme Court during the last few years.  The Court ruled that these wetlands were not the same as flowing water wetlands that are connected to the oceans and, therefore, they are not subject to regulation by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  One of the regulatory theories to justify the law regulating wetlands was that this regulation is needed to ensure the navigation of our rivers.  Opponents argued that if not connected to the river these wetlands must not be needed to protect navigation.  Environmentalists make plenty of other arguments about why we need wetlands and how they contribute to life.  It is likely, had the Democrats won the last election, that there would have been efforts to overturn or undermine the Supreme Court decision.  

I attended the “IT Standing and Future Tech Subcommittee meeting”.  This committee is composed mostly of computer experts.  Few elected officials were in attendance.  There is great concern about the security of all computer systems.  We have become so dependent on these systems in government and commerce that governments could be and have been shut down by hackers.  So have businesses.  It was emphasized that phishing is still the most popular way hackers and pirates operate.  Phishing involves sending messages hoping the recipient will click on the message or hit even one key that will allow the hacker to get into the system and gain control of it.  The message was, unless you know all about the message, delete it.  Most IT people think elected officials do not take computer security seriously enough.  

I attended two sessions on immigration.  There were at least 300 people in each session.  One session was on “Federal Immigration Policy and Impacts on Counties”.  The other was “Immigration Task Force Reform”.  The presentations by federal officials were directly on the subject.  Both sessions were corrupted during the question-and-answer sessions by individuals who wanted to roll logs in front of sending illegal immigrants out of the country.  They could not understand why immigration officials could arrest illegal immigrants.  They were never willing to admit the key word is “illegal”.  Many younger people believed that those who are in the country should be allowed to stay simply because they got across the border.  Using their arguments, if one robbed a bank 5 years ago and had not been caught the robber was home free.  Ignorance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights seemed to carry the day.

A reminder that we must be alert to those who want to use subtle ways of controlling us (the masses) came with the requirement that in order to attend the conference one must sign (on the computer screen) a pledge on the manner of his behavior at the conference.  Registration was by computer, so one had to sign to attend.  My summary is that anyone who had their behavior reported as being offensive or “not wanted” would be expelled from the conference.  There was no opportunity for appeal.  The judgment of bad behavior was based on someone’s opinion as to what is offensive to them.  This was the only definition.  There was no additional definition such as excessive use of alcohol or drugs or loud and offensive language.  It is significant that no rights were presented for the accused.  This is the first stage toward dictatorship and political privilege for the “anointed ones”.

Participating in government policy is important in our democracy.  All Republicans registered before January 30, 2025, may attend the Beaufort County precinct meetings and convention to be held on Saturday, March 22 with doors opening at 8:30 AM.  The location is Southern Acres at 3889 NC Highway 92 East, Bath.

This is an important step in setting political policy in the Republican Party.  Officers will be elected to run the local party for the next two years.  Delegates will be elected to attend the district and state conventions.  Participation in this event is how the Republican voter can be sure conservatives are elected to keep Beaufort County conservative.  This is an important event for conservative Republicans and RINOs.  The only requirement to participate is to be a registered Republican.