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In response,. Mr. Copeland wondered how much more funding the city district needs and <br />how efforts to find sufficient funding for the city district's students would affect OCS's <br />ability to meet its student's needs. <br />Mr. Copeland also said that displacement of long time county residents, as a result of <br />high taxes, is a real problem. "It's wrong to say that if you can't afford to live in the <br />county then just move out." Mr. Kelly agreed, and, said that a lot of city district teachers <br />cannot afford to live in the county. Mr. Copeland said that his son, a Canrboro fire <br />fighter, can't afford to live in the city school district or in the county. Lf this is a shared <br />concern across the two school districts, Mr. Copeland said, then we need to acknowledge <br />it and respond with sensitivity to our longtime residents. <br />Mr. Copeland said that BOCC has never defined "fairness." OCS is doing all that it can <br />do. Eventually, .the Commissioners have to ask themselves if they really think they are <br />providing us with a fair amount of funding for educating our children... If the answer is <br />yes, then we need to move on. But if the answer is no, then I'm not sure where the . <br />dollars are going to came from but if the Commissioners think they aze being unfair to us <br />then at some point it is the Commissioner's job to fix that. We can identify programs that <br />we all want funded, and on things that we can work on together, but at some point the <br />Commissioners have to identify the district tax as "the elephant in the room," he said. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that the work group's charge is to generate ideas that the . <br />Commissioners might use in the coming budget cycle to move toward fairness. For <br />example, if the answer on the operating side is to raise the ad. valorem and decrease the <br />district tax in a way that would meet the needs of both school systems, then the next <br />discussions would be "by how much" and "would the two school boazds advocate for the <br />solution." <br />On the capital side, she said, the group might explore what to do given that the city <br />district has $120 million worth of needs over the next ten years while the county district <br />doesn't have a need far new schools. What should be in our ten-year capital <br />improvement program? She said that she is looking for "the best thinking we can come <br />up with," because in the end the BOCC is going to do something. We're going to pass an <br />operating budget for next year, and we will pass a capital budget, she said. <br />I'm trying to find out what your thinking is about the big issues, she said, but the big <br />issues don'f seem to have changed: OCS needs more operating money. CHCCS has a <br />district tax that allows them to have a certain amount of money. I can't, think of any other <br />way to get you more money, except by raising the ad valorem, she said. We have been <br />repeatedly unsuccessful in getting authority for levying the real estate transfer tax, she <br />added. <br />On the capital side, we have $12.8 million budgeted for the next CHCCS school, but after <br />the standazds are decided upon I can bet you the cost will be at least $20 million, she said. <br />This gets us up against our debt ceiling. <br />9 <br />