Minutes 01-31-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Budget Goals • Defending the quality of public education • Ensure our safety net services • Funding sewer construction and hook ups in Rogers Road area • Continue improvement in public safety • Give priority to funding core county services ( before discretionary services) • Support broad range of economic development– new and existing businesses ( make sure to support infrastructure) • Ensure Information Technology Department approach is state of the art for Board of County Commissioners, citizens, transparency • Resources to download agenda items individually rather than en masse • Reducing inequities in funding between two school districts, even if it means raising the general property tax (since one school system has a school district tax) • Targeted funding to address child poverty (e.g. increase childcare subsidies) • Address hunger issues with children (additional subsidies) • Address inequities through long term plan • Sound land use planning • Re-visit school funding equity as means of challenging the Board's assumptions • Consider jail alternatives, maintain funding for drug treatment court • Address school to prison pipeline • Consider limit to viability of tax increase Rod Visser noted that there are some inherent conflicts among some of the ideas the Board has just generated that the Board will have to talk through. He expected that there would be consensus around some subset of these. He also tested the assumption that even for those issues around which there is NOT Board consensus, the Board discussion is useful to the Manager and staff regarding how they put together the Manager's recommended budget. Michael Talbert said that is very accurate, but while these ideas are excellent, he is not sure they can address them all in one year. The goal of this section is what does the Board want to accomplish next year. To Commissioner McKee's earlier point, if they undertake new initiatives not included in the basic budget estimates presented earlier, they may need a tax increase. Commissioner Gordon said some are general goals and then more specific goals- quality education is a goal they do now—a general goal. She wants to be sure that undertaking any of these ideas as goals does not adversely affect the 14 goals they adopted in 2009. Chair Jacobs said he agreed with Commissioner Gordon's general point, and explained that he used the word "defend" for education because what the State is doing requires us to make extra efforts to maintain what we are already doing and that may impact how much money we have for other things. He picked the word "defend" because it's not a normal situation - public education is under attack.