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COUNTY PROFILE Orange County, founded in 1752, is located in the north-central portion of North Carolina, approximately midway between Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA. The County is part of the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, which also includes the Research Triangle Park, a major complex of research and research-oriented manufacturing facilities. The County operates under a Commissioner-Manager form of government. The governing body of the County is the Board of County Commissioners, which formulates policies for the administration of the County. In addition, the Board annually adopts a balanced budget and establishes a tax rate for the support of the County's programs. The Board consists of seven commissioners, elected on a staggered basis for terms of four years. The County Manager is appointed by, and serves at the pleasure of the Board as the County's Chief Executive Officer. He has appointive and removal authority over department heads and other employees of the County. The County Manager is responsible for the daily operations of the County Government. In addition the Manager's responsibilities include implementation of policies established by the Board of Commissioners, as well as the administration of the annual budget adopted by the Board. The County provides a wide range of services, including public safety, human services (Social Services, Health and Aging), and funds for education, cultural and recreational activities, general administration functions and others. This CAFR includes all funds and account groups of the County including all activities considered to be part of (controlled by or dependent on) the County. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1995, the County implemented Governmental Accounting Standards Board ("GASB") Statement No. 14, The Financial Reporting Entity. As a result, the Orange County ABC Board is reported as a discretely presented component unit of the County. The budget serves as the foundation for Orange County's financial planning and control. As required by the North Carolina Budget and Fiscal Control Act, the County adopts an annual budget for all governmental funds except those authorized by project ordinance that are multi-year in nature. Appropriations to the various funds are formally budgeted on a functional basis. The County Manager is authorized to approve appropriation transfers within all functions. Transfers that alter the total appropriation of any functional category or fund, including the multi-year project funds, must be approved by the County Commissioners. However; for expenditure control purposes the budget is monitored and controlled on a departmental level. FACTORS AFFECTING FINANCIAL CONDITION The information presented in the financial statements is perhaps best understood when it is considered from the broader perspective of the specific environment within which the County operates. Local economy Orange County is part of the 13 county Research Triangle Regions. This area continues to experience growth and is considered among the most desirable areas of the country to live and work. The region added over 125,000 jobs in the last six years. Research Triangle park was named the #1 High-Tech Region by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the region was named the #1 Region for Biotechnology by the Milkmen Institute. The County's economy is characterized by a high degree of institutional and public-sector activity, plus office, commercial and service-oriented business. Manufacturing and agriculture are smaller portions of the County's economy. The County enjoys a consistently low unemployment rate. The unemployment rate estimated by the North Carolina Employment Security Commission for Calendar year 2011 was 6.3% and for September 2012 was 5.7%, one of the lowest in the State. (State average was 9.6% for September 10.4% for calendar year 2011.) ii