Issues ranging from beach nourishment to the Children's Health Insurance Program to film and historic preservation tax credits got an airing Friday at a working lunch session that allowed New Hanover County commissioners and staff to talk with elected officials and their representatives.

The commissioners, fresh from a conference last week with their counterparts across the state to set a legislative agenda for this year's General Assembly long session, had plenty of concerns to share with Rep. Ted Davis (R-New Hanover), Rep. Rick Catlin (R-New Hanover), Sen. Mike Lee (R-New Hanover), and Catherine Jordan, aide to U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Chance Lambeth, aide to U.S. Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.).

The major issue at the federal level was continued funding for beach nourishment and inlet dredging, although local officials will be watching to see what happens to the Marketplace Fairness Act, which, if enacted by Congress, would allow local governments to collect sales tax from online sales transactions in their jurisdictions. A failure to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), funded through Medicaid but administered by Blue Cross, would leave hundreds of thousands of children without coverage for basic medical care and forced to rely on local emergency departments for medical treatment, county manager Chris Coudriet said.

Unless Congress acts to extend it this year, CHIP will sunset at the end of the calendar year, Coudriet said.

Commission chairman Jonathan Barfield also alerted those present to a proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lower the allowed levels of carbon dioxide in the air. If the currently acceptable maximum were lowered by the agency, "it would impact economic development and we could be out of compliance," Barfield said, noting that the county has been making efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Most of Friday's discussion concerned issues that will likely come up in the General Assembly's current session: the fate of the state's new film grant program, which has $10 million in funds for the remainder of the fiscal year; the possible resurrection of the state's historic preservation tax credit, which was allowed to lapse at the end of 2014; and the retention of grant funding for rural infrastructure projects.

Counties are also concerned that the state will delegate more responsibilities to them without the necessary funding to carry out those responsibilities. Specifically, they are wary of being asked to be responsible for road maintenance in their jurisdictions.

"Counties do not want to be in the road business," Barfield said.

Davis spoke at length about the current low level of funding of the new film grant program, and said that he hopes the drop in film and television projects in the state will "open some eyes."

"Hopefully we can put something in the House budget [for the grant program]; come up with a figure that is acceptable to the budget committee," he said. "Movie companies are looking for stability. This business of [funding the grant program] every six months ain't going to cut it."