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5 <br /> 1 <br /> 2 0 Defending the quality of public education <br /> 3 0 Ensure our safety net services <br /> 4 0 Funding sewer construction and hook ups in Rogers Road area <br /> 5 0 Continue improvement in public safety <br /> 6 0 Give priority to funding core county services ( before discretionary services) <br /> 7 0 Support broad range of economic development– new and existing <br /> 8 businesses ( make sure to support infrastructure) <br /> 9 0 Ensure Information Technology Department approach is state of the art for <br /> 10 Board of County Commissioners, citizens, transparency <br /> 11 0 Resources to download agenda items individually rather than en masse <br /> 12 0 Reducing inequities in funding between two school districts, even if it means <br /> 13 raising the general property tax (since one school system has a school district <br /> 14 tax) <br /> 15 0 Targeted funding to address child poverty (e.g. increase childcare <br /> 16 subsidies) <br /> 17 0 Address hunger issues with children (additional subsidies) <br /> 18 0 Address inequities through long term plan <br /> 19 0 Sound land use planning <br /> 20 0 Re-visit school funding equity as means of challenging the Board's <br /> 21 assumptions <br /> 22 0 Consider jail alternatives, maintain funding for drug treatment court <br /> 23 0 Address school to prison pipeline <br /> 24 0 Consider limit to viability of tax increase <br /> 25 <br /> 26 Rod Visser noted that there are some inherent conflicts among some of the ideas the <br /> 27 Board has just generated that the Board will have to talk through. He expected that <br /> 28 there would be consensus around some subset of these. He also tested the assumption <br /> 29 that even for those issues around which there is NOT Board consensus, the Board <br /> 30 discussion is useful to the Manager and staff regarding how they put together the <br /> 31 Manager's recommended budget. <br /> 32 <br /> 33 Michael Talbert said that is very accurate, but while these ideas are excellent, he is not <br /> 34 sure they can address them all in one year. The goal of this section is what does the <br /> 35 Board want to accomplish next year. To Commissioner McKee's earlier point, if they <br /> 36 undertake new initiatives not included in the basic budget estimates presented earlier, <br /> 37 they may need a tax increase. <br /> 38 <br /> 39 Commissioner Gordon said some are general goals and then more specific goals-quality <br /> 40 education is a goal they do now—a general goal. She wants to be sure that undertaking <br /> 41 any of these ideas as goals does not adversely affect the 14 goals they adopted in <br /> 42 2009. <br /> 43 <br /> 44 Chair Jacobs said he agreed with Commissioner Gordon's general point, and explained <br /> 45 that he used the word "defend" for education because what the State is doing requires <br /> 46 us to make extra efforts to maintain what we are already doing and that may impact how <br /> 47 much money we have for other things. He picked the word "defend" because it's not a <br /> 48 normal situation - public education is under attack. <br /> 49 <br /> 50 Commissioner McKee noted as an example that he does not foresee pulling social <br /> 51 workers back out of schools, so that is one area where there will need to be an increase <br /> 52 in educational funding. <br /> 53 <br />