This is the second of three supplemental pieces to my Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Central Pines Regional Council Recommended Budget Message. These supplemental posts allow a deeper dive into three of the most pressing issues facing the organization over the next several years. Each piece will end with recommendations to the Board on how to address the issue over the coming year(s).
- Lee Worsley, CPRC Executive Director
Executive Summary
Central Pines Regional Council was originally established in 1959 as the Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission. Since that time, our primary mission has remained singular: to serve our local government members. CPRC’s local governments provide support through member dues, which serve as the foundation of our funding mix. CPRC appreciates that our local government members choose to fund the regional council each year. As recently as 10 years ago, Central Pines membership sat at 37 local governments. Today, we happily serve 50 local government members and only need one (1) local government to achieve 100% membership.
The member dues each of our local governments provides are CPRC's only source of discretionary funding which can be deployed flexibly in response to member needs, strategic priorities, and emerging opportunities. In FY 2026–2027, member dues are budgeted at $964,368 to serve a population of 2,246,640 across our seven-county region.