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Rod Visser noted that the revenue from the first quarter seems to indicate that the one cent sales tax is growing at a faster rate than the 112 cent sales tax. With reference to licenses, permits and fees, the staff feels they are looking at a possible three to four percent increase for next year. The staff expect revenues from earnings and investments to be at the same level for next year as what they received last year. John Link noted that one of the challenges during the budget process will be to determine how to fund the startup costs for new schools and to decide whether some of these costs will be paid by the district tax. He will look back and see how other startup costs historically have been paid. Rod Visser said that something the Board of County Commissioners may want to look at in the next couple of months would be the possible issuance of 213 bonds for Whitted and Northern HSC renovations. Commissioner Brown asked about finance alternatives and Rod Visser said that we could use pay-as- you-go with the project phased in over the next four or five years. We could also pursue private placement. Commissioner Jacobs asked if the renovations to the Whitted Center and the Northern Human Services Center were included in the bond that failed and if so, that he feels the County needs to be clear why we are moving forward on these projects since the citizens did not approve expending monies for these two projects. He also would be interested in looking at scenarios based on our financial status for a zero tax increase and would like to know the advantages, limitations and what kind of tradeoffs we might have to make. John Link said that this is something the County Commissioners will need to direct staff on in that they would need to create two scenarios for the budget. Commissioner Brown asked for a report of non-residential and residential property tax percentages compared to surrounding counties Rod Visser said there is approximately 85% residential compared to 15% non-residential. Approximately 9% of our property tax base comes from motor vehicle tax and it keeps growing. He will bring back some information from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners to show how this tax base breaks out as well as information on other counties. Part of this increase has to do with capturing more vehicles than we previously did due to changes in the tax law which make it hard to escape paying the motor vehicle tax. Commissioner Carey asked about the percentage of collections for the 85°x6 residential and 15% non-residential and Rod Visser said that it is easier to collect on real property and that would be 98-99%. On motor vehicular tax collections, the percent is closer to 90-92% range. This is because the tax office has fewer months to collect motor vehicle taxes. C. GENERAL DISCUSSION OF BOARD GOALS This session was facilitated by Julia Mack and Jim Ullman, volunteers from the Dispute Settlement Center. Jim Ullman went over the ground rules for this session. He then read the categories he had posted and asked the County Commissioners to brainstorm ideas to place under each category. The categories are listed below: 0 Communication 0 Innovation and Efficiency 0 Impacts of Growth and Development 0 Open Space and Recreation and Parks 0 Rural Character Preservation 0 Education: Equitable and Effective School Funding 0 Public Safety 0 District (geographical residential) Elections 0 Other * Firearms * Human Resources * Human Services