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<br />Laura Blackmon went through the recommendations: <br />1. Direct staff to amend the current County Capital Funding Policy to include the following <br />provisions: <br />Beginning in fiscal year 2007-08, the County will budget NC Education <br />Lottery proceeds "in arrears" -meaning that funds will be budgeted in the <br />year after the State distributes them. Far example, lottery praceeds <br />distributed to the County during the upcoming 2007-08 fiscal year would be <br />budgeted the following fiscal year, 2008-09; <br />Commissioner Gordan said that it is a goad idea to budget in arrears, but one problem is <br />that you might not get the money because it could be sequestered. Laura Blackmon said that <br />this money does earn interest while the State has it, so the County would not be losing anything <br />by requesting it at the end of the fiscal year. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked that staff check it out anyway. Donna Caffey said that <br />several years ago the State withheld public school building funds for those counties who did not <br />have it dedicated to pay debt service. <br />Commissioner Jacobs agreed with Commissioner Gordon and said that part of the <br />reason the County has been off stride with the Capital Improvement Plan is because the County <br />Commissioners took money out of the School/Park Reserve Fund since the Governor stole the <br />money. He wants to minimize the exposure to the degradations of other elected officials. <br />Laura Blackmon clarified that the suggestion is to draw the lottery proceeds down at the <br />end of each quarter when it is available, but still budget in arrears, if possible. The Board <br />agreed. <br />b. NC Education Lottery monies will be dedicated to repay debt service for debt <br />issued after fiscal year 2006-07 to address school facility renovation needs; <br />Laura Blackmon said that there was a meeting of the school collaboration committee, <br />and there was consensus that the schools may want to use funds from debt service for <br />renavations, but they want flexibility. If the Board agrees with giving the schools flexibility, the <br />staff will recommend that once the decision is made to use the funds for debt, that there not be <br />any flexibility until the debt is paid off. <br />Chair Carey said that he concurred with the schools on having the flexibility. He said <br />that if the money is used far debt service, it is a continuous cost. He thinks that both school <br />systems thought that they could designate a portion for debt service and use the remainder for <br />pay-as-you-go items. He wants to be able to track this. <br />Commissioner Foushee said that she supports giving the schools flexibility. She said <br />that she recalls earmarking impact fees far debt service. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that the committee did agree to that yesterday in the meeting <br />and he received an email from Superintendent Pedersen today outlining what he had proposed <br />yesterday, which is adding some flexibility to either use the money to repay debt service, or to <br />directly apply to renovations. He said that one advantage to the County is that it would not <br />automatically be incurring more debt. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that she would support this. <br />Laura Blackmon said that debt capacity would be opening up in 2008-09. <br />Cammissioner Gordon said that when the impact fee study is done, the Caunty <br />Commissioners may need to revisit the policy. <br />It was pointed out that revenues from impact fees have been declining. <br />