Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
• Orange County's 2007 Legislative Priorities <br />o Reference. Attachment 4-7 -Orange County 2007 Legislative Goats Results <br />Summary <br />Laura Blackmon said that last spring, the Board of County Commissioners established <br />some priorities that were forwarded to the legislative delegation. The top priorities are listed on <br />page one. She clarified that on page 3 of the summary under the first priority, the House Bill <br />should be 1613 and not 613. <br />Donna Coffey said that on school construction, she neglected to mention that the State <br />withheld part of the Public School Building Fund money this year of $457,000. <br />Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 3 under Employment Anti-Discrimination <br />Legislation and said that there was also an Anti-Bullying bill that was killed partially because it <br />was trying to prevent bullying based on sexual orientation. <br />Geof Gledhill said that he thinks this bill gat passed, but some of the definitions were <br />taken out. <br />Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 4 and Land for Tomorrow and said that <br />when he met with the Commissioner of Agriculture about the value-added center, he mentioned <br />that this money was perfect far what Orange County was proposing. He would like to have staff <br />actively contact the Commissioner of Agriculture's office regarding the process of accessing this <br />money. This value-added center is being done with Chatham, Alamance, and Durham <br />Counties. <br />Commissioner Jacobs made reference to Open BurninglBurning Permits and said that a <br />citizen told him the other day that during the "no burning" period, one of the fire departments <br />was burning a building. He asked staff to find out if this actually happened. This was on Miller <br />Road. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that the State legislature did little with transportation funding <br />this past session and that, given all of the state's transportation needs, that was problematic. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that he read today that there was going to be a special session <br />about the Governor's vetoes. <br />• House Bill 1499 -Homestead Exemption and Senior Circuit Breaker <br />Laura Blackmon said that the Tax Collector and Tax Assessor were present. <br />o Reference. Attachment 4-2 -Changes to Homestead Exemption (HE) <br />Program <br />Commissioner Jacobs asked about the 3R fee exemption and Tax Collector Jo <br />Roberson said that now the County qualifies residents on 3R. The majority of them are qualified <br />when they qualify for Homestead Exemption. If someone qualifies for HE, they also qualify for <br />3R exemption. With the qualifications changing on HE, if the 3R qualifications are not changed <br />to match, then there will have to be separate qualifications. This will double the workload on <br />bath parts. The Board can decide. <br />Chair Carey asked about the bottom chart on the beige sheet and Tax Assessor John <br />Smith said that the middle column shows who qualifies this year for HE and the right side shows <br />haw much the increase would be if they no longer qualify after the reapplication. <br />Laura Blackmon said that it is not known how many people this will affect <br />