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6 <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />FROM: Mark Peters, Chair, Local Revenue Options Education Advisory Committee <br />SUBJECT: Initial Report from Local Revenue Options Education Advisory Committee <br />DATE: February 14, 2008 <br />Last fall, the Board of Commissioners indicated its intentions to hold a referendum in May <br />2008 that would offer Orange County voters the opportunity to approve the levying of an <br />additional one-quarter cent local sales and use tax, a local land transfer tax of up to .4% on <br />real property transactions, or both. You decided to appoint our group to assist Orange <br />County government during the run up to the referendum in explaining to voters the <br />rationale and the ramifications of whichever local revenue option you ultimately selected. <br />Counting our organizational meeting on December 11, 2007, the Local Revenue Options <br />Education Advisory Committee has thus far held six meetings. During the first phase of <br />our work, we have focused on educating ourselves about the need for additional revenue <br />in Orange County, the mechanics of the available revenue options, and the reasons that <br />one or the other may be a preferable instrument to individuals and groups with differing <br />perspectives. <br />We appreciated, and clearly benefited from, the opportunity on January 15 to hear <br />presentations and to pose questions to Dr. Roland Stephen of NCSU and Dr. Karl Smith <br />from the UNC School of Government. The information we obtained that evening, the <br />numerous handouts provided by staff, and the additional research that individual <br />Committee members have performed have by no means made us experts, but have left us <br />much better informed on the subject than we were a few months ago. <br />The Chair of the BOCC made it clear to us at our organizational meeting that the <br />Commissioners did not expect our group to reach consensus viewpoints. That is probably <br />fortunate, as our group reflects divergent opinions from a variety of different perspectives. <br />We have had spirited discussions in our meetings, and have benefited from informal input <br />we have received throughout the process from interested parties in attendance at our <br />meetings who have not been appointed by the BOCC to serve on.the Committee. I am <br />pleased that our meetings have reflected a spirit of civil and respectful discourse, despite <br />differences of opinion. <br />We understand that the BOCC is scheduled to make a decision at your February 19 <br />meeting regarding which local revenue option - or both - you will place on the ballot. <br />Once the BOCC has made its decision, our Committee will move to the second phase of <br />its work, as outlined in your initial charge to our group. In our next steps, we will: <br />? Develop appropriate informational materials for the local revenue option(s) <br />? Design and implement an educational component to distribute relevant factual <br />information about the local revenue option(s) to Orange County voters in the most <br />effective and efficient manner possible