Letters regarding position of impact fee - VII-A - 3-21-95

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:x Presentation to Orange County Commioners by Peter Morcombe at the OWASA building rift March 21,1995 Most of us are here tonight to express our-concern about the over crowding of our schools. In PCF, we believe the problem can be sOlVed without raising taxes. In spite of our many constructive proposals, PCF has been bilsrepresented in the media as people who do not care about education. In fact, we care passionately about it. Most of us expect to have children in the public schools foi many, many years. For example, my youngest son will graduate from high school in the year 2012. In PCF, we know that more money will not help when financial actunett is jacking. The proposed impact fee increase is not siifficient to fill the financial hole created by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Raising property taxes by an amount that is sufficient to solve the problem will face massive. opposition from many sectors of the community. The only viable option is to reduce costs. Last year our Board of Education threatened to cut funds for the Blue Ribbon 'Task Force, the debating team, the band and many other popular programs unless taxes Were raised. The Orange County Commissioners were not fooled by this ruse and refused their request. Insb--ad of heeding your clear message, they are back again with the same old solution. We ask you to demand more creativity. There are ways to save large sums of money without affecting instruction or successful programs. On March 18, the Herald Sun reporb--d that the Durham Schools, faced with large capital costs, propose to cut many administrative positions. Here are just a few that were listed: POSITION SALARY Associate superintendent for curriculum &instruction $98,683 Assistant superintendent for innovative programs $92,515 Executive director for auxiliary programs $72,162 Savings of this kind can provide ten times more funds than the proposed hike in impact fees. Besides the salary costs, these positions have fringe benefits, secretarial support and fine offices which will no longer be needed. There are no equivalents of these positions in private education and we will find that we do not need them either. It is time for Neil Pedersen to start working on a similar list.