Minutes - 05-24-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Brawn asked about the mental health funding and the childcare subsidy. John Link said that the funding that comes from the state is not adequate to address the waiting list for childcare. Regarding the mental health funding, John Link said that the Mental Health Area program is working very hard to address the needs of the mentally ill. Same of the state funding sources are going to be cut and he anticipates further cuts in the funding for mental health. Chair Halkiotis made reference to the cutbacks in Smart Start funding. He is afraid that there may be further cuts in the Smart Start program. He also feels that the mental health funding will be decreased and the responsibility for funding will be placed on the counties. He asked that we be proactive in our thinking and look ahead to what may happen with these two issues. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the undesignated fund balance and the projection this year of 11.34% and asked what is anticipated for the year 2002. Finance Director Ken Chavious said that they would have a better answer after the audit is done. Commissioner Jacobs said that he thinks that helping to provide some of the people with an opportunity to better themselves is a goad tradition to continue. He would also look upon the undesignated fund balance as a way to provide some flexibility to address some of the issues of "unfunded" mandates. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the affordable housing funding and John Link said that there is $250,000 in the budget for this item. Also, there is a separate amount for the urgent repair program. Commissioner Gordon made reference to charter school students and said that her understanding is that the per pupil allocation is first given to the school district and then paid by them to the charter schools far operating expenses. John Link said that this was correct. Commissioner Gordan said that, far purposes of operating expense and current expense, charter schools have to be funded; but for purposes of capital, they do not because the state regulations do not require the provision of any capital money. She asked how DPI handles charter school students. Budget Director Donna Dean said that DPI does not count Charter Schools but leaves that up to the individual school district. The State receives a monthly report on charter school enrollment. There are currently 360 charter school students in the County. Rod Visser made reference to charter schools and said that the State law has not caught up with charter schools. He thinks that the law should be changed to include the charter schools. Chair Halkiotis said that he is still not convinced that DPI projections are accurate. He feels we need to have some flexibility with respect to the actual number of students who attend schools each year. Chair Halkiotis invited all citizens to the two budget public hearings -May 31 S` at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill and June ~h in the F. Gordan Battle Courtroom in Hillsborough at 7:30 p.m. Commissioner Brown asked for the figures for a zero tax increase, and John Link said that these would be ready the first of next week. 2. Orange County's Round 3 Application for 1_0 MGD Jordan Lake Level II Allocation County Engineer Paul Thames said that he has talked with the Division of Water Resources about what the County needs to do to retain the County's existing allocation. He said that it comes down to the fact that the County has to be able to prove that there is a need for the allocation. He said that the only thing that he could use to generate numbers that would make the County's case is the water shortage situation in the Orange-Alamance service area. Orange-Alamance's own water supply plan shawl that they have a 600gpd shortage from a water supply planning standpoint. Orange-Alamance has no plans for developing a permanent source of water supply. He used that justification to prove a need for the existing allocation. Commissioner Brawn said that this sounds like a serious basis for the application for the allocation. Paul Thames said that the census projections in the Efland-Cheeks area do not take into account the potential development of the EDD and the exponential demand for subdivisions. Even without that, in just the Efland corridor alone, in 50 years the demand is going to increase by 400,000