Minutes - 20060120 - Laserfiche WebLink

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and forecast earlier, but the numbers may be shaky if it is too early. It should be assumed that no fund balance would be appropriated. Chair Jacobs made reference to attachment 1f-1 and said that staff has projected an annual increase of 9°/n in the County's revenues. He asked for an explanation of this when the item comes up. His point is that projections are done with less information than they have for the fund balance. Segal Efficiency Study Identified Savings and Disposition: Donna Dean said that the Board had requested information from the Segal review, and these are attachments 1 c-1 through 1 c-3. These attachments show the County's net savings that Robert Segal was able to find and the last two pages are the savings for the schools. Chair Jacobs asked what became of the discussions about joint purchasing. He suggested bringing this up again at the collaboration meeting. He said that these discussions are what instigated the Segal study in the first place. He said that he feels that they did not get all that they needed from this review. Commissioner Halkiotis said that, because of the request to use Robert Segal, there has already been a savings of over $1 million with Orange County and the school systems. He said that very few school systems and government agencies call in firms like Segal to review them. He wants to note that they have done this in the name of the citizens of Orange County and that it is a direct offshoot of the efficiency study committee set up over eight years ago. Commissioner Carey asked about the pro-rata share of sales tax reallocation of $424,000 and how many years this goes back. Finance Director Ken Chavious said that this goes back three years. He said that Mr. Segal would use the sales tax refund request from all non-profits, school systems, and Towns to make sure that they claim sales tax in the appropriate counties. Commissioner Carey asked, now that Mr. Segal has shown them how to do this, if they were going to rely on Mr. Segal or if this can be done in-house. Ken Chavious said that this is labor intensive and Mr. Segal knows how to do it. The Finance department cannot do this with the current resources. Commissioner Carey said that if they can get further savings by adding resources, then they need to go for it because it would save even more money. He wants to examine what it would take to get this done without using outside help. Commissioner Gordon echoed what Commissioner Halkiotis and Commissioner Carey said to follow up to see if this can be done in-house. Revenue Growth Projections: Donna Dean made reference to attachment 1 d and said that this is a quick reference on the revenue picture for the next two years based on what has happened aver the last several years. She made reference to the yellow highlighted line, and that next year the projection is $1.8 million of natural growth. This is based on na fee increases and the trends. She said that this is a very conservative projection. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the estimated growth for last year and Donna Dean said about 2°/a, which was about the same amount. Chair Jacobs said that this counterbalances the proposed 10%. Debt Capacity: Donna Dean made reference to attachment 1f-1, the debt capacity spreadsheet. She said that they are projecting a 9% increase and this is based on what has happened in the past. They have tried to anticipate what the debt service would be based on the current debt issuance plan. She made reference to the year 2007-2008, and said that with the current 15% debt capacity limit, Orange County will be really close. John Link said that if there were some emergency situation that they needed to address, the Board could amend the debt capacity policy.