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APPROVED 12/7199 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING June 3, 1999 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a budget public hearing on Thursday, June 3, 1999, at 7:30 p.m., at the Southern Human Services Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Alice M. Gordon, and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Stephen H. Halkiotis, and Barry Jacobs. COUNTY COMMISSIONER ABSENT: Moses Carey, Jr. COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Rod Visser and Albert Kittrell, and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (all other staff members will be identified appropriately below). NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. Chair Gordon called the meeting to order and introduced County Manager John Link for presentation of the Recommended Orange County 1999-2000 Budget. 1. BUDGET PRESENTATION Manager Link began his presentation by thanking the Board for its time and consideration in the matter of the budget, as well as the citizens of Orange County who were in attendance. Additionally, he expressed his appreciation for the work of his staff in preparing the budget. Manager Link also mentioned the excellent coordination and response time to requests from the School Superintendents and their staff. The Manager's recommended 1999-2000 Orange County budget is $100,621,502.00. The budget gives top priority to funding school mandates and new school start-up costs. The Manager believes the budget improves the County's ability to provide responsive and effective public safety and emergency services, as well as sustaining basic County services. The budget establishes a General Fund property tax rate at 92.9 cents per $100.00 valuation, a 2.7-cent increase. For the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools District, the tax rate is set at 22 cents per $100.00 valuation, an increase of 2.8 cents for start-up costs for Scroggs Elementary and the addition to East Chapel Hill High School. As to property taxes, the tax base continues to strengthen, with projected growth in the overall tax base to more than $6.9 billion. This represents a 4.6 percent increase over the original 1998-1999 budget estimates. With regard to sales taxes, positive growth trends are found in both the one cent and half-cent scenarios. A one-cent tax collection for the current fiscal year is projected to grow at about $1.3 million, or 25 percent over 1996-1997 collections. For next year, the one-cent tax collection is projected at 5.5 percent over the current year estimate. The projected growth for half cent sales taxes is between 6 and 8 percent. Current education expense funding meets the initiatives mandated by the State. This funding increases the per pupil allocation by $216.00, from $2,040.00 to $2,256.00. This increase of 13.52 percent surpasses the average yearly increase over the past ten (10) years of 11.5 percent. In total contributions per pupil, which includes capital, Orange County is number one in the State of North Carolina, a hallmark of which all County citizens should be proud. Our neighbors are close, but based on the recommendations of their County Managers, Orange County should retain that ranking in the coming years. School expenditures demonstrate the County's continued commitment to students by ensuring that funding remains in the highest percentile within all County expenditures. The total requested appropriation for the Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District budget, inclusive of both the general fund per pupil allocation and the special district tax. is $30.7 million. The recommended total appropriation is $29.7 million. The Orange County system does not have a district tax, so its local source of revenue is solely dependent upon the general fund. The total requested appropriation for the Orange County School District was $15.2 million. The recommended total appropriation is $14.45 million.