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Commissioner Halkiotis said that what the County Commissioners have all said is true -take the words equal, access, level playing field, and opportunity, and broaden it to be wide enough so that every child can walk through. He worked for a school system for 32 years where principals made less money than their colleagues in the southern end of the County, but he never heard anyone complaining except at the elected level. Most other staff people also made less money. He is afraid that today the argument has gone beyond any philosophical boundaries and for most people it has become an issue of money. He thinks that if you want to make it equitable, then legislative authority should be given to both school boards to levy taxes. He said that several years ago, two CHCCS board members pushed for this at the state level. Commissioner Halkiotis said that, with respect to opportunities for kids, this is where all the difference has to come down to. He said that the bottom line is money. To bring in the same amount of money as the CHCCS, there would be an 18-cent tax increase for the OCS district. He does not think this can be done in one year. Chair Jacobs reiterated what he heard about equity: fairness, fair funding, partnerships with school systems, substantial equivalency {upgrading older facilities), equal access to opportunities and/or choices, equal access to comparable courses, equal process that is conclusive, each child should be able to reach their full potential, not realistic to have an 18-cent tax increase, possibility of having school systems present their budgets to the voters, equal treatment, equal access to decision-making, access to services, programs, and facilities. Chair Jacobs suggested putting all of this into a couple of paragraphs, and they would all agree except the part about the school boards having taxing authority. Chair Jacobs asked Commissioner Halkiotis if he was serious about discussing the idea of having the school systems pursue the opportunity to raise their own monies by vote. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he thinks they should discuss this. Commissioner Carey said that he was at a meeting today of the County Commissioners' Association and this issue of school tax was discussed, and there was no support from the NCACC to give taxing authority to school boards. He said that 3$ out of 40 opposed this idea and he was one of the two that thought it should at least be discussed. Commissioner Gordon said that if they want to do something like this in the short term, they need to get answers back from the school boards on their definitions of equity and the second questions. She said that the school boards could make a strong statement for their budgets and propose a tax increase to fund their school systems. Chair Jacobs said that they could add an item about whether the school boards would prefer a system whereby they have the authority. He does not want to take responsibility for any mare of the school board's decisions than they already do. He is not in favor of them doing this without voter approval. He would be interested in seeing if the school boards would be interested in having the authority to take their budgets to the voters for approval. Discussion ensued on haw the school boards would probably never be given taxing authority in North Carolina. Commissioner Carey said that it would be an interesting debate, but it is probably not going anywhere. He does not want to ask the staff to spend any time on it. Commissioner Gordon said that she would like to do something this year and figure out a way to have some movement toward fairness. Commissioner Carey agreed. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there was a story of an 81-year old man in Dare County who got tired of a '/-cent sales tax for beach replenishment, and he found a piece of North Carolina State law that allowed him to call a special referendum, and it was defeated, and the 112-cent sales tax for beach replenishment is gone. He said that