In preparation for the 2022 general election of Tuesday, Nov. 8, Xpress sent questions to all candidates in contested local races representing Buncombe County voters. Responses from candidates for the N.C. General Assembly, Buncombe County-level races, Asheville city government and local school boards are all collected here.
“Having worked as a teacher in North Carolina since 1997, I can state without hesitation that we need county leaders who support us and recognize the challenges that we face.”
Proposed changes on the agenda for the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, Oct. 18, include adding staff and improving software to make the county’s assessment of home values more accurate, asking state legislators to expand a tax break some homeowners get under state law and increasing efforts to tell homeowners how to challenge their tax value.
General election candidates for the 2022 Buncombe County Board of Commissioners races share their positions with Xpress.
According to figures shared with the county Board of Commissioners by Dr. Shuchin Shukla, a physician and opioid crisis educator with the Mountain Area Health Education Center, Buncombe’s rate of overdose deaths has exceeded the statewide average since at least 2016. In 2021, the county suffered 45.2 deaths per 100,000 residents, compared with 35.8 deaths per 100,000 for North Carolina as a whole.
The county’s Agricultural Advisory Board and Land Conservation Advisory Board are seeking $384,000 to fund six easement projects. Five easements would protect farmland in Asheville, Barnardsville, Leicester and Weaverville. The remaining project would help Hendersonville-based nonprofit Conserving Carolina secure an easement for Camp Woodson in Black Mountain.
Buncombe behavioral health manager Victoria Reichard noted that the county has received roughly $2 million of a more than $16 million lawsuit settlement, negotiated with pharmaceutical companies over their role in the opioid epidemic, this fiscal year. Of those funds, a county team has recommended about $518,000 in immediate spending.
More than a year after the waters have receded, less than half of state funds assigned to help those in need have been allocated for specific work. That’s according to a presentation by the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management slated to come before the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Tuesday, Sept. 20.
The forum, hosted by the Council of Independent Business Owners, gave the candidates the opportunity to stake out their positions on a range of issues central to Buncombe County residents.
The county may offer reduced monthly parking passes in its Coxe Avenue parking deck, cutting the monthly cost to rent a space in that garage from $85 to $40 for employees who work within about a mile of Pack Square.
The presentation, available on the Board of Commissioners agenda prior to the Sept. 6 meeting, focuses on the nearly $3.75 million awarded from the county’s early childhood education fund in fiscal year 2021-2022. Across 21 funded projects, according to the presentation, 71% of goals were met, with most shortfalls coming in enrollment, attendance and staffing targets.
“Smart growth involves tradeoffs, especially as we move to replace energy-wasting urban sprawl with more energy-efficient urban density as the national paradigm.”
“Buncombe County deserves responsible leadership. Anthony Penland is running for Buncombe County commissioner this fall and very much has earned and deserves your support.”
The resolution would take effect if either or both of the bond referendums up for November votes were approved. The oversight committee would monitor investments made with up to $70 million in bond money and ensure the funds were being used to meet Buncombe’s goals: conserve 20% of county land and increase affordable housing by up to 3,150 units, both by 2030.
Asheville and Buncombe County filed a class-action lawsuit against HCA Healthcare and Mission Health on July 27 in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit alleges HCA is attempting to monopolize health care in Western North Carolina. “The Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners felt it was necessary to take this step to […]
“’We must have ever more destruction of the environment to save it,’” chants the Kool-Aid quaffing Sierra Club.”
According to Matthew Cable, Buncombe’s community development division manager, the county unsuccessfully applied for the same funding last year. The county Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the grant during its meeting Tuesday, Aug. 16.
According to data presented by Tim Love, Buncombe’s director of economic development and governmental relations, the county’s poverty rate went up from about 11.5% in 2018 — its lowest point in a decade — to about 13.9% in 2020, the latest year for which information was available. Poverty in both North Carolina and the overall U.S. fell over the same period.
“It’s inspiring to see so many objections to the disappointing Pisgah-Nantahala forest plan, which wants to maximize logging and minimize protections for the forest.”
The county’s ad hoc reappraisal committee, tasked with reviewing allegations that Buncombe’s tax assessment process was unfair to low-income residents and communities of color, presented its recommendations to the board. And commissioners approved annual funding for reparations, honoring a request from the joint Asheville-Buncombe Community Reparations Commission.
A 10-month review, designed to address citizen complaints and equity concerns about Buncombe County’s approach to property assessment, is scheduled to conclude at the Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, July 19.
