Minutes - 05-30-2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPROVED 4!312001 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING May 30, 2000 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, May 30, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to hear a presentation of the budget and to hold a public hearing on the Manager's Recommended Budget for 2000-2001. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr. and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Alice M. Gordon, Stephen H. Halkiotis, and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Rod Visser, 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 1N THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. Chair Carey explained that there was a meeting scheduled last week for a budget presentation to the County Commissioners so that the public could have it in advance of the public hearing. However, the meeting was cancelled due to the damage from the storm last week. BUDGET PRESENTATION County Manager John Link made the presentation for the Orange County 2000-2001 Annual Operating Budget. He recognized the people who spent a lot of time getting the budget together. He particularly thanked the school superintendents for their cooperation in submitting the school budgets in the same format. In summary, he made the following points: The County achievements in the past year were as follows: • Local funding provided resources for top performing schools and high quality learning environments •:• Successful transition of solid waste responsibilities from the Town of Chapel Hill • Major land acquisitions for parkland and open space • Multi-dimensional progress in addressing long-term affordable housing needs This proposed budget continues the County Commissioners' historic commitment to education as atop priority. The proposed budget calls for a countywide rate increase of two cents from 91.9 cents to 93.9 cents per hundred-dollar valuation. The scenarios for a zero tax increase and aone-cent tax increase are located in the back of the budget document. The Chapel Hill-Carrbora School district rate remains at 22 cents. There were four fire districts that requested increases in the district tax -Cedar Grove, New Hope, Orange Rural, and South Orange. The General Fund budget total is $109,150,500. This is an increase of about nine million dollars from the current budget. This provides increased funding for education of 5.5 million dollars. The County continues to rank in the top five in the state for tax collection. As a result of the fund balance, 3.487 million dollars is being appropriated toward the revenue for this budget. This is equivalent to almost 4.9 cents on the property tax rate. In the proposed budget, 49.4°l0 of the County's general fund will go toward Education, 23.7°Io will ga toward Human Services & Outside Agencies, and 9.0°~ will go toward Public Safety. The remainder will go toward Public Works; Community Services, Planning, Administration, and Tax and Records, County Capital and County Debt, and Miscellaneous and Non-Capital Transfers.