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Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the numbers far fund balances on both school systems. He is puzzled how every year the school systems are sitting on "golden eggs" with their fund balances. He would like a better tracking mechanism to keep up with the two school systems during the year. Finance Director Ken Chavious said that trying to project what the year-end fund balance will be is very difficult. There are too many things that can happen that will affect the fund balance. Chair Jacobs asked Ken Chavious if the school systems would be safe and secure if they cut their fund balances and Ken Chavious said that the OCS would be, but a lot depends on the start-up costs, which are a couple of years out. Commissioner Carey said that the County Commissioners need to know what the school systems are spending their fund balances on, because if they are spending it on recurring capital, the County will be hit next year with the costs. He would like to revisit the discussion of the fund balance goal for both school systems. Commissioner Gordon pointed out that raising taxes by one cent this year to start equalizing funding between the two school systems is not a lot compared to the countywide tax increase of 20 or 21 cents that would be necessary to completely equalize funding, as would be required if the two school systems were to be merged. Chair Jacobs made reference to the Orange County Schools' request of six Spanish teachers, four Social Workers, and five Teacher Assistants, which is $656,000. This would leave $2.1 million in their fund balance. He said that they could do this for several more years before they came close to the recommended minimum fund balance. Commissioner Carey said that if the County Commissioners encourage the school system to take money out of fund balance this year, they would take more out next year. Commissioner Halkiotis agreed and said that he also finds Commissioner Cordon's proposal intriguing. He does support a countywide tax and letting people vote on it. Chair Jacobs suggested taking the first part of Commissioner Gardon's proposal as a motion and dealing with the issue of the countywide supplemental tax as a separate discussion. There was no second to the motion, A motion was made by Chair Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to add enough to the per pupil to cover the Blue Ribbon Mentoring program, which was $30,000 in the CHCCS. Commissioner Halkiotis asked how they could make sure that this money gets spent for the Blue Ribbon Mentoring Program and Chair Jacobs said that they would just express their opinion and the school system could just accept it or not. Discussion ensued on how to get the school system to spend the money on this program. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there should be some kind of hook attached to it because there are a lot of other programs he would like to give money to, especially childcare assistance. Commissioner Brown said that this sets an incredible precedent. She does not feel comfortable with this. Commissioner Carey agreed with allocating $30,000, but not specify what to use it for. Chair Jacobs said that the motion is about money and they do not have to transmit an intention. His motion is to add to the per pupil an amount that equates to $30,000 to the CHCCS and the proportional amount to the OCS. Rod Visser said that this would come in at just under $3.00 per pupil. They always round the per pupil amount up. This would generate $32,958 for CHCCS and $20,496 far OCS. It would take the per pupil from the recommended $2,620 to $2,623. VOTE: UNANIMOUS