Orange County NC Website
2 <br />schedule. The General Fund property tax would be established at 91.05 cents per $100 of <br />assessed valuation. This represents a 3.75-cent increase over the current rate of 87.3 <br />cents. The Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools district tax rate would be maintained at 17.9 <br />cents with projected revenues from this source of $7,660,642. He then reviewed the <br />revenue from the tax base, sales tax, intergovernmental sources, charges for services <br />along with investment earnings and the appropriated fund balance. A copy of the proposed <br />1998-1999 Orange County budget, in its entirety, is in the Clerk's office. <br />County Manager Link indicated that as far as per pupil allocation was concerned, <br />Orange County allocated equally to both school systems as was required by law. He also <br />mentioned that timelines provided by the state for this budget,process were no longer <br />realistic given the complexity of the budgeting issues. He recommended that the Board of <br />County Commissioners request fiscal impact statements from both School Boards for new <br />programs and/or policies prior to their adoption. This would alert the Board of County <br />Commissioners to potential fiscal impacts and would allow for dialogue regarding the <br />timing and the proportion of that impact. It would also give the County staff additional time <br />for analysis of these requests. He mentioned that there were challenges to pursuing <br />equitable funding, including the fact that there are different perspectives on the viability of <br />district taxes and significant difference in the proportion of funding each system requests <br />for base, growth and expansion. He suggested raising the Chapel Hill Carrboro City <br />School district tax in order to fund specific items in their expansion request. He suggested <br />that the Board of County Commissioners recommend to the Orange County School Board <br />that they use a portion of their undesignated fund balance for their expansion requests. <br />QUESTIONS AND/OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS• None. <br />QUESTIONS AND/OR COMMENTS FROM CITIZENS: <br />Mr. Roland Burnette, a parent with a child in the Carrboro Elementary School, spoke on <br />behalf of the Bell South program at this school. He indicated that this classroom was <br />comprised of at-risk children who were given special, concentrated attention.. It was an <br />excellent program and all 14 of the students improved dramatically and will move to the <br />next grade level. <br />Miss Emily Burnette, a student in the Bell South program, asked the Board of County <br />Commissioners to continue to support the Bell South class. <br />Ms. Jennifer Clark, an Orange County resident who recently returned home after living <br />elsewhere for over 30 years, spoke on behalf of Day Care Services. When she returned <br />home and needed quality after school care, Day Care Services was available to help her <br />find the services she needed. She asked that the Board of County Commissioners <br />support this much needed agency. <br />Mr. Randy Beck, a parent of children at the Cameron Park Elementary School, asked for <br />additional financial support for the teachers and parent volunteers at this school. He felt <br />that there had not been sufficient improvement to the facilities at this site. He also asked <br />the Board of Commissioners to keep in mind that property taxes have risen over 200% in <br />the last 6 years. <br />