Orange County NC Website
The Board considered adapting in principle a "Resolution Governing the Expenditure of <br />Capital Funds on Orange County Government and Public School Structures," ar a modified <br />version thereof, sending it to the two Boards of Education for review and comment, and <br />considering it further thereafter for formal adoption. <br />John Link said that the topic of this item is for the Board to consider a draft resolution <br />that would govern the expenditure of capital funds for both Orange County government capital <br />projects as well as school facility projects far bath school systems. He gave some background <br />and reminded the Board that this discussion began as part of the presentation of last year's <br />budget, the Manager's message of proposed budget, when he spoke to the fact that Orange <br />County faced the challenge of achieving the appropriate balance, both in how we fund the <br />schools, how we fund public safety, and how we fund human services in Orange County. Those <br />are the three major public purposes that the County is responsible for. <br />From that discussion, there have been two recent work sessions to further focus on the <br />issues. One on October 25t" and one last night. Those discussions focused on about what had <br />been achieved within the last 15 years in terms of addressing the needs of schools as well as <br />the other functions of County government. He pointed out the success in pursuing a Schools <br />Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance that has assured that the County will provide the capital <br />facilities necessary as growth has occurred so that we can avoid overcrowding in schools in the <br />future. He said that the staff was going to present to the Board tonight a list of those projects <br />that are yet to be funded. Certainly, there are two school projects that are going to be <br />addressed in the outer years of the ten-year CIP -Elementary School #11 and Middle School #5 <br />for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School system. There are a number of County projects that do not <br />have any financing plan, or very little financing aver that same period. <br />He said that a third of a billion dollars - $340 million -has been authorized by this Board <br />far capital projects during the last 15 years. Twa-thirds of that has been authorized by the <br />voters of Orange County -that being $212 million that occurred in four referenda - 1988, 1992, <br />1997, and 2001. In addition, the County has incurred additional debt to address other school <br />and County needs. The discretionary money that the County Commissioners have been able to <br />appropriate for the capital, that is the pay as you go funds from sales tax, basically was split <br />59% for schools and 41 % for County projects. The impact fees for schools goes directly to <br />school projects, and also there was funding from the North Carolina Public School Construction <br />Fund that was earmarked for schools. <br />As the Board considers this proposed resolution tonight, Jahn Link said that it is <br />important to try to project what Orange County is going to be able to do over the next ten years, <br />both in terms of operation expenditures as well as capital expenditures for schools and far <br />County general operations. The specific resolution that is before the Board was introduced by <br />the Chair on October 25t", which proposes that there be increased attention to County capital <br />funding needs. Specifically, the proposal targets 60°~ of capital expenditures for school projects <br />and 40% for County projects. <br />Rod Visser made reference to the several work sessions in the last month that relate to <br />capital issues and said that one of the topics the Board discussed at one of those work sessions <br />was the County's fairly complicated capital funding policy that has been in place for a number of <br />years. There was a clear consensus from the Board that the staff ought to work to try to simplify <br />and streamline that capital funding policy and bring it back for the Board's consideration. He <br />said that, whether the Board may decide about this tonight or in the future, he would anticipate <br />the results of this discussion and feedback that we get from school systems over the next <br />several months, to fold that back into a revised capital funding policy that will be brought back <br />over the next several months in conjunction with the development of the 2005-2015 capital <br />improvement plan. <br />Budget Director Donna Dean made the PawerPoint presentation. She said that of the <br />total $340 million over the last 15 years, school projects have received about $255 million and <br />County projects have received about $85 million. This chart is provided also in the agenda <br />