ON THE RECORD/Home ownership tops NACo president’s list
This month, the National Association of Counties (NACo) will formally induct its new president, Angelo Kyle, in Phoenix at its annual conference. A member of the Lake County, Ill., board of commissioners, Kyle has been involved with NACo since 1990. American City & County talked to him about his presidency and upcoming issues for NACo.
Q: What do you plan to accomplish during your term, and how will you reach those goals?
Kyle: Our presidential initiatives include home ownership opportunities. An offshoot of that will be our Home Ownership for Heroes program, which places an emphasis on providing home ownership opportunities for America’s heroes: policemen, firemen, nurses, EMTs, even [for] teachers and other civil servants. A significant [number] of America’s public servants cannot afford to live in the same community in which they serve and protect. They pay the ultimate price with their lives in protecting and serving our community, but they can’t afford a home in the same community.
Another [issue] is going to be access to health care. Between 30 and 40 percent of all Americans are either uninsured or underinsured. And when you really look at it, county government has been responsible for providing health care and medical services to uninsured [Americans]. If individuals don’t have insurance, they’re going to go to the county health department, the county clinic or the county hospital to get treatment. So when the federal government sits down to talk about access to health care, certainly county government should be at the table.
Q: What are emerging issues for counties?
A: Homeland security is still on county government’s radar screen. We want to continue to make certain that the federal homeland security funding makes it down to the local level. A lot of the homeland security funding goes to the states first, and the states are not going to be the first responders. It’s going to be the local emergency management staff who are going to be the first ones on the scene, so we need to make certain that the federal homeland security dollars trickle down to the county and local level so that we can respond adequately to a terrorist attack.
Q: What role will you and the association play in the upcoming presidential election?
A: We’re trying to put our housing initiative on the presidential candidates’ radar screen of both parties. NACo will be participating in both political campaign conventions. Our intent is to make an appeal to both presidential platforms to include homeownership and housing opportunities for all Americans, particularly America’s public servants, to make that a part of their national agenda.
Q: What are some of the ways that counties are dealing with funding shortfalls?
A: [One] of the alternative methods is debt collection. We’re seeing that counties over the years have not aggressively gone after the outstanding debt from various entities. So, we’re stepping up our debt collection programs and procedures. We’re looking for alternatives and creative new means of generating revenues. Certainly some are going out for bond referendums and issuing bonds to subsidize some of the shortfalls. That, of course, can take you into some considerable amount of debt, but these are some of the avenues that are being contemplated.