Orange County NC Website
Technical Report 23 <br />By multiplying that portion of the tax rate [$0.2009 per $100 valuation] to be used for debt service <br />and capital by the average value of each housing type, it is possible to identify the amount of credit <br />to be given to each type of housing unit. These calculations are shown on Table 12. <br />Sales Tax Revenues. Owners of undeveloped land do not pay sales taxes on that land. However, <br />they do pay property taxes. If property taxes have financed facilities, even in part, local <br />governments should determine the value of those payments [see discussion of "Property Tax <br />Revenues" above]. On the other hand, if payments for facilities came from State sales tax rebates, <br />they probably cannot be attributed to vacant land prior to development. <br />Orange County presents a somewhat different situation. In 1984, the Board of County <br />Commissioners adopted a one -half cent local option sales tax based on the provisions of Article 40 <br />of G.S. 105. Although the statute indicated that 40 percent of the proceeds from the sales tax could <br />be used to finance public school capital projects and/or retire debt on such projects carried out <br />within the five preceding years, Orange County elected to use 80 percent of the proceeds for these <br />purposes. Two years later, in 1986, another one -half cent sales tax was adopted based on the <br />provisions of Article 41 of G.S. 105. Under the statute and the approved local option, 60 percent of <br />the proceeds could be used to finance public school capital projects and/or retire debt. <br />As shown in Table 9, Orange County expects to receive an average annual payment of $3,930,074 <br />in Article 40 sales tax revenues from FY 1996 -97 to FY 2005 -06, the school improvement program <br />period. In addition, Article 42 average annual payments of $2,934,544 are anticipated. Combined, <br />the average annual amount of sales tax revenues that can be used for public school capital needs is <br />$6,864,628. Although Orange County does use a portion of these funds for debt service payments <br />and the remainder for capital needs, such distinctions are not considered in calculating the "credit" <br />to be given for sales tax payments. <br />To obtain projections of Orange County's population, long -term growth trends (1940 to 1990) were <br />analyzed using the CAPP [Community Analysis & Planning Projections] computer model. Shown <br />on Table 9 are the projections of the number of persons residing in the county during the FY 1996- <br />97 to FY 2005 -2006 period. For the ten -year period, the average annual population is 115,792. If <br />the average annual sales tax revenue for public school capital needs ($6,864,628) is divided by this <br />figure (119,814), the estimate of per capita sales tax revenue is $57. <br />To calculate the present value of the per capita revenues, assumptions regarding the interest rate and <br />term must be made. The current 5.5 percent interest rate on bonds is used, since almost half of the <br />sales tax revenues are used to pay debt service on school capital needs. A ten -year term is used, <br />matching the school improvement planning period and the time frame within which new school <br />facilities are needed. The present value table in Table 10 indicates that the multiplier would be <br />7.53763. This means that the present value of the $57 annual per capita sales tax payment for ten <br />years would be $430 ($57 x 7.53763). <br />The per capita figure of $430 is of little use by itself. It must be converted to a per household figure, <br />permitting it to be deducted from the total capital cost per student for school capital needs. Using <br />1990 Census information from the N.C. State Data Center, it is possible to calculate the average <br />number of persons per household, by housing type. However, the use of the 1990 data may be <br />