Matt Calabria, candidate for Wake County Commissioner, District 2

The News & Observer sent a questionnaire to each of the Wake County Board of Commissioners candidates running in the 2022 election.

In District 2, incumbent Matt Calabria, a Democrat, faces Republican challenger Mark McMains.

Early voting in the Nov. 8 election began Oct. 20.

Name: Matt Calabria

Age: 39

Political party: Democrat

Occupation and employer: Attorney, Wallace & Nordan LLP

Education: BA, UNC-Chapel Hill; JD, Duke University School of Law

Political or civic experience: Service roles have included: Wake County commissioner for 3 terms. Board of Directors member, Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education. Community Leadership Council, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Graduate of the Raleigh Chamber’s Leadership Raleigh Program. Student Body President and Trustee, UNC-Chapel Hill. Co-Chair, Legislative Committee of the NC Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Volunteer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle. Intern, NC Attorney General’s Executive Staff.

Campaign website: www.mattcalabria.com

What is Wake County doing right, and wrong, on managing growth?

Wake County is headed in the right direction overall. Since I was elected in 2014, we have caught up on a school construction and renovation backlog left over from the Great Recession and expanded economic opportunities for citizens of all walks of life. We have invested in libraries, parks and other services so that we won’t just maintain but improve our quality of life as we grow. We are implementing a successful public transportation referendum that is stemming traffic and enabling residents to get where they need to go. The commission has also prioritized housing affordability by working to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing and building thousands of new affordable housing units. And we have done all of that while keeping property tax rates lower than in about 2/3 of our peer counties across the state.

Still, as our community evolves, we should work to do a better job of addressing housing affordability and other pressures affecting cost of living.

How should the county support K-12 schools, students and teachers?

Wake County must continue its robust support for public education. In my three terms as a commissioner, I worked successfully to help raise local teacher pay to among the highest in the state. We should continue to assist the school system with their recruitment and retention challenges, including those related to cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and similar personnel.

In addition, while we have substantially increased the number of school nurses, counselors, psychologists, and social workers, there is more to be done to keep our kids healthy and safe. Going forward, we should work collaboratively to better integrate the county’s human services and hunger-fighting efforts into our schools to better support our kids and take advantage of economies of scale. Lastly, while we have greatly reduced the school construction and renovation backlog left over from the Great Recession, we must continue to work with the school system to address ongoing growth challenges.

What do you think Wake County should do, if anything, to address racial injustice issues, and what kind of changes would you propose?

First, Black and Brown residents are disproportionately affected by housing challenges, insufficient worker training opportunities, food insecurity and other issues. As a result, the housing, worker training, and other programs discussed elsewhere in this survey disproportionately apply to those populations and will work to help correct inequities. The county should also consider how to augment pre-existing programs that provide entrepreneurship assistance, health services, first-time homebuyer assistance, and upward mobility supports in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Second, we should fully utilize our newly created DEI director position to screen for equity issues not just in Wake County’s internal practices, but also its external policies.

Last, we should avoid unnecessarily criminalizing nonviolent behaviors of our youth, proactively enact mentorship and other programs that steer at-risk youth in the right direction, and strengthen our reentry programs.

What new steps should Wake County take to recruit businesses to the area?

Wake County has done well in recent years, but staying on the cutting edge requires vision and hard work. Since access to talent is the top priority for most of the companies looking to locate or expand here, and since attracting great workers means having a high quality of life, we must continue to build out our public transportation system, preserve open space, support public education, and develop vibrant downtowns. We should also continue to adapt our worker training programs to the changing needs of our companies. We have done well to become a “hub” for cutting-edge industries such as biotech and life sciences; focusing on these and other emerging industries would help us stay ahead of national trends.

Additionally, many of the jobs created in our area will be from the growth of companies that are already here. Providing companies with new training opportunities and expanding access to capital will not just create jobs but help us create more home-grown success stories.

What’s the top issue facing the county? What specific legislation or changes would you propose to address this issue?

Managing growth will continue to be our most critical challenge. To grow thoughtfully, we must strengthen our housing affordability efforts and utilize public transit to decrease traffic. We should also enact development policies that promote density and walkability in the right places and enable us to keep up with housing demand. In the next few years, I hope to partner with municipalities to better align our individual housing efforts. Wake County should also continue building schools where necessary and ensuring that our departments (such as those handling planning and permitting) can handle additional demands placed on them.

Building for the needs of tomorrow also requires strong fiscal policy. My colleagues and I have done well to keep property tax rates lower than in most other NC counties and to maintain a AAA bond rating according to all three major rating agencies. Strong financial strategies will allow us to finance needed improvements as cheaply as possible.

If elected, what would your two or three priorities be during your first year in office?

First, the commission should continue expanding affordable housing options. This includes not just increasing our affordable housing stock but working with municipalities to enact forward-thinking planning and zoning ordinances. It also means creating better supports for low-income or fixed-income homeowners to prevent them from being priced out of our community.

Second, Wake County must continue to support public education. In such a tight labor market, the school system must be able to recruit and retain needed teachers and staff. We should also expand the Wake ThreeSchool program to provide more low-income 3-year-olds with a strong start to their scholastic careers.

Third, we should work to strengthen our economy not just by creating more high-end jobs but by focusing on working families’ economic mobility. That will help us maintain a stable and sustainable economy in the years ahead.

What unique skills or life experience would you bring to local governance?

Being an attorney in private practice helps me better analyze the laws and policies the commission deals with on a regular basis and gives me a better sense of how public policy impacts residents and businesses alike. I am also a mediator certified by the NC Dispute Resolution Commission to conduct mediations in North Carolina’s Superior Courts, and I have a record on the commission of bringing people with disparate viewpoints together to find consensus.

As the son of a public high school principal, the product of public schools, and the father of a school-age daughter, I know how important it is to maintain a strong public education system. I have also been honored to serve as a volunteer or board member for several charitable or service organizations, and those experiences shape my understanding of what a community can do and how to bring stakeholders together to accomplish great things for our community.