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Budget Director Donna Coffey made this presentation. She went over two decisions made <br />by the General Assembly this summer. First of all, the General Assembly approved athree- <br />year phase-in plan that will relieve counties of their Medicaid expenditures by the year 2009- <br />2010. This year, the State is projecting that Orange County's cast for Medicaid will be about <br />$4.5 million. Beginning in 2009-2010, the State will be paying these Medicaid expenditures. <br />However, the Medicaid will not result in any large windfall of revenues, because as a way to pay <br />for these expenditures, the State took the Article 44, or the last half-cent sales tax. In addition, <br />far the first year of the three-year plan, the State plans to keep a portion of the Public School <br />Building Fund monies of $457,000. The bottom line sales tax budgets of the cities and towns <br />should not be negatively impacted because the County is mandated by the legislation to hold <br />the cities and towns harmless. This detailed information is included in Attachment 2-a. <br />Secondly, the General Assembly also granted counties the authority to enact one of two <br />new local revenue options - either a 0.4-percent land transfer tax or a %4-cent sales tax. At the <br />last Board of County Commissioners' meeting, the County Commissioners agreed to include the <br />new local revenue options question on the May 6t" ballot. The County Commissioners have not <br />yet made the decision on which revenue source that they will be asking the voters to decide on. <br />The County Commissioners could put bath questions on the ballot, and if they were both <br />approved, the County Commissioners would have to decide which one to enact. There is a very <br />extensive public education component to this, very similar to past bond referenda. <br />Chair Carey said that the Board would be deciding an October 9t" to appoint an education <br />advisory committee. All of the stakeholders will be represented on this committee -including <br />the towns, school boards, etc. <br />Mayor Foy said that the League of Municipalities and the Association of County <br />Commissioners worked together and put a lot of money to persuading the legislature, and the <br />Association of County Commissioners abandoned the League of Municipalities and took it. He <br />objects to this and he asked the County Commissioners to object to the association because he <br />does not think that this was the right way to behave. He said that he was affronted by this. <br />Chair Carey said that the County Commissioners were surprised with the outcome. <br />Mayor Foy said that he would like the County Commissioners to register an objection to <br />the way that the association walked off from a partnership and did not do anything on behalf of <br />the coalition. He does not think that this is right and he thinks that it created a potentially <br />longstanding rupture. <br />Chair Carey said that the Board would consider this. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that the Manager has a proposal, but it has not been <br />discussed by the Board. <br />Laura Blackmon said that it is important to look at the best way to utilize these funds <br />because they are not guaranteed funds. She would like to be very careful about dedicating the <br />funds to some type of projector expenditure and then being further in the hole. One of the <br />suggestions that she has is dedicating the funds to paying off debt service. She suggests <br />looking at the long-term impact. <br />Land Trust Affordable Housing Task Force <br />Chair Carey said that this item was an a previous AOG agenda. He was not at this <br />meeting, but he understands that some agreement was reached about the need to address this <br />long-term affordability issue. When he discussed this with the Mayors, it was decided to come <br />forward with a proposal to try to move this item forward with a set of recammendationsthot <br />could be considered by the governmental bodies. This is addressed on Attachment 3-a. <br />Jacquelyn Gist said that Carrboro has been talking about using some of the payment-in- <br />lieu money to go towards maintenance and long-term affordability. She supports that, and she <br />likes the idea of this task force. However, she would like to remind everyone that the Ten-Year <br />Plan To End Homelessness is coming forward very soon. In Carrboro, payment-in-lieu is an <br />