Minutes - 06-12-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPROVED MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET WORK SESSION June 12, 2001 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Budget Work Session on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Stephen H. Halkiotis and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordan, and Barry Jacobs 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 IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. 1. CHAIR REVIEW OF SCHEDULE AND TOPICS Chair Halkiotis called the meeting to order and outlined the agenda. 2. 1992 BOND REFINANCING PROPOSAL Finance Director Ken Chavious said that he is asking that the Board consider refunding a portion of the general obligation bond that was approved by the voters in November 1992. The bonds were sold on July 5, 1994. The estimated savings of the refinancing proposal would be over $50,000 annually, or a total of nearly $700,000 for the remaining term of the bonds. The staff is asking the Board to introduce the bond order to allow the Caunty to refund the bonds and to adopt a resolution setting the date far a public hearing on June 25t"~. These are the required steps to allow the Caunty to refinance. Cammissianer Brown asked if this was awin-win situation and Ken Chavious said yes. A motion was made by Commissioner Brown, seconded by Commissioner Carey to introduce the Bond Order Authorizing the Issuance of General Obligation Refunding Bonds in the Maximum Amount of $24,000,000 and adapt the Resolution setting a date for a public hearing of June 25, 2001, authorizing the Finance Director to file a Debt Statement and authorizing the Clerk to publish a Notice of Public Hearing. VOTE: UNANIMOUS COUNTY MANAGER'S COMMENTS John Link made reference to two sheets, "Recommended School Operations and Recurring Capital Funding," and "Per Pupil Allocations for Each District." He said that his recommendations for school funding were based on the guidelines developed by the School Funding Options Task Force. From the task farce, the Commissioners had a benchmark of 48.1 °~ of the general fund for school funding. This includes current expense, recurring capital, and debt service on school-related capital debt. His actual recommendation was 49.2°~ with a $42 increase per pupil. This was multiplied by the total projected number of students from the Department of Public Instruction. The total number of students projected for the Chapel Hill-Carrbara system was 10,180 and for the Orange Caunty system was 6,556. These numbers were multiplied by the per pupil allocation of $2,437 to arrive at the total recommended current expense funding of $24,808,660 for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system and $15,976,972 for the Orange County system. He pointed out that the district tax in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system represents a huge difference in the two systems. This difference exists because the taxpayers in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district pay an additional 20 cents per one hundred-dollar valuation more than da the taxpayers in the Orange County district.