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they received. She thinks that we should have some type of OCS tax that would provide more money to this school system and she has wrestled with the idea of whether it should be a county-wide supplemental tax district or a district tax. She thinks it is important far the OCS to have its own tax and for the CHCCS to have its own tax so each school district has the autonomy to ask the Board of County Commissioners far what they want. She said that if a tax passed, then the Orange County School Board could request up to the maximum that the tax could be levied and the County Commissioners would not levy any more money than what the Orange County School Board would ask. Commissioner Gordon suggested capping this tax at 10 cents and she said that this would more than fully fund the OCS's requests that they have turned in over the years. She said that they could fully fund the budget request from the OCS by a tax rate increase of 4-5 cents. Commissioner Gordon said that it is not true that the Board of County Commissioners has not done anything for the OCS. As recently as this past year, the Board assumed the debt for Cedar Ridge High School. The Orange County School Board should have the autonomy to set the maximum amount for the tax and it should be for a district tax and be set at 10 cents. She said that this is the best mechanism now for providing more funds to the OCS and she wants to put it to a vote of the people. Commissioner Foushee agreed with Commissioner Gordon. She has done a list of pros and cons for acounty-wide tax and for an Orange County School District tax and what was most important to her is to give more money to the county district. And the Board has heard from county district residents that they have enough funding and then some say they don't. She said that her opinion is that the OCS district needs more funding. She said that this goes above the level of the Board of Education by affording the residents of this school district an opportunity to determine if they want the tax. For the OCS Board to frame this conversation as if a Board was going to be voting or not for the tax, that is not what they are doing here. We are determining if there will be a referendum on the November ballot to allow the residents to determine if they want a district tax or nat. The Boards need to determine what they mean by equity and to define it or leave it alone. This is a step in the right direction to provide more funding to a school district whose Board believes in years' past that adequate funding has not been made. Commissioner Jacobs said that what he hears is that there is a strong voice for no change in the OCS school district and then there is another group that wants equity, which they believe, equals full funding and he thinks that the best way to find out is to ask the residents of the Orange County district. This does not mean that this Board supports or opposes a tax but that they should give OCS district residents the chance to speak. He thinks this Board would like to see if the OCS residents want a tool like the CHCCS residents have at their disposal far addressing some of the funding needs of their school system that have been identified. Commissioner Jacobs said that there is a proposal from Commissioner Gordon to put a cap on a tax at ten cents and he believes that there is some wisdom in that because it might be less scary at that amount for the district taxpayers. But he has been persuaded by others that the OCS district will then always be behind and that the thing to do is set the rate at the same rate as the CHCCS, which is capped at $.35. He said he is open to any proposal that the Board would like to put forward. Commissioner Gordon said that the problem is that $.35 might be too high to receive a favorable vote in a referendum and $.10 is about twice as much as the average OCS deficit. They could always consider raising it later and send it back to the people for a vote or a