Bill
HB 972
The bill provides Wayne County with a $15.76 million one-time funding package for capital, infrastructure, and community projects, plus recurring funding to expand local prosecutor
Status: Passed (legislative actions through readings recorded); becomes effective July 1, 2025.
Purpose
- Provide directed state funding to Wayne County (NC) for a set of capital, infrastructure, public safety, community, and nonprofit projects, and to expand local prosecutorial and indigent defense capacity.
Key provisions and dollar amounts
- Section 1 — Directed grant to Wayne County (nonrecurring, FY 2025–2026):
- Total: $15,760,000 (General Fund, nonrecurring)
- Uses (itemized):
- $5,000,000 — Capital project at Rosewood Middle School
- $2,000,000 — Athletic track update at Dillard Middle School
- $1,000,000 — Water and sewer upgrades, Village of Walnut Creek
- $750,000 — “Saving Union Station” revitalization project
- $500,000 — Training facility for Wayne County Sheriff’s Office
- $1,000,000 — Wayne County United Way
- $250,000 — Wayne County Alcoholics Anonymous
- $250,000 — Tuscarora Council Scouting Program
- $5,000,000 — Mattamuskeet Lodge Restoration Initiative
- $10,000 — Pricetown Volunteer Fire Department
Section 2 — Assistant District Attorney (Prosecutorial District 9):
Section 3 — New Defender District 9 (Office of Indigent Defense Services):
Fiscal/timing notes
- One-time (nonrecurring) investments dominate: $15.76 million directed grant plus the small one-time amounts for court offices — combined nonrecurring FY 2025–26 total ≈ $15,860,482.
- Recurring new appropriations for the judicial/public defense system total $2,509,422 per year for each fiscal year in the 2025–2027 biennium (sum of Sections 2 and 3 recurring amounts).
- Funds are appropriated to state agencies (Office of State Budget and Management; Administrative Office of the Courts; Office of Indigent Defense Services) for directed use or hiring.
Who is affected
- Wayne County government, local schools (Rosewood, Dillard), Village of Walnut Creek residents (water/sewer), local historic/ revitalization projects (Union Station, Mattamuskeet Lodge), local public safety agencies (Sheriff’s Office, Pricetown VFD), nonprofit/service organizations (United Way, AA, Scouting Council), court system in Prosecutorial District 9, and residents served by indigent defense in Greene, Lenoir, and Wayne counties.
Administration and implementation
- The directed grant is administered through OSBM; judicial positions are administered through the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Office of Indigent Defense Services.
- Effective date specified as July 1, 2025.
Overall effect
- The bill provides one-time capital and community support to Wayne County while creating recurring staffing capacity in the local criminal justice system (prosecutor and an expanded public defender district).
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
Sign in to ask a question.
