Orange County NC Website
14 <br /> 1 o Total expenditure budget - $1,689,036 — offset by occupancy tax <br /> 2 o Budgeted Occupancy Tax Revenue Increase of 5% — ($64,633) <br /> 3 o Advertising and Marketing Increase - $200,780 <br /> 4 o Occupancy Tax Revenue History (chart) <br /> 5 <br /> 6 Commissioner Rich asked Laurie Paolicelli if the occupancy tax increase is for hotels <br /> 7 and/or Airbnbs. <br /> 8 Laurie Paolicelli said this is just the hotels, but Airbnb has an agreement with the <br /> 9 County, where it remits taxes. She said this line item is starting to grow. <br /> 10 Commissioner Rich said it may be good next year to separate these from each other. <br /> 11 Laurie Paolicelli said that is a good idea, and she expects this amount to grow as <br /> 12 Carrboro and Hillsborough have increasing numbers of whole house rentals on Airbnb. <br /> 13 <br /> 14 Article 46 Sales Tax— page 62 <br /> 15 o Total projected collections - $3,651,952 <br /> 16 o 50% or$1,825,976 Allocated to Schools and Distributed by Average Daily <br /> 17 Membership (ADM) <br /> 18 ■ Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools - $1,108,367 for Technology <br /> 19 and Facility Improvements <br /> 20 ■ Orange County Schools - $717,609 for Technology <br /> 21 o 50% allocated to Economic Development - $1,825,976 - chart <br /> 22 <br /> 23 Article 46 Economic Development Sales Tax Distribution FY 2018-19 Recommended (pie <br /> 24 chart <br /> 25 <br /> 26 Commissioner Rich said there is a large balance in the small business loan line item, <br /> 27 and this should be spent down as people are questioning the amount in there. <br /> 28 Steve Brantley said this balance fluctuates with repayments, and some businesses have <br /> 29 recently repaid their full balances. He said the Town of Carrboro asked about a new business, <br /> 30 seeking financial assistance from the County. He said the Carrboro loan program is a bit <br /> 31 different from the County's program, and he does not think the programs can be combined; but <br /> 32 there can be supplemental loans. <br /> 33 Commissioner Rich said there is some chatter out there that more should be spent on <br /> 34 the smaller, local companies. <br /> 35 Steve Brantley said half of the small business loan grant funds go to Chapel Hill and <br /> 36 Carrboro small businesses, and none of the grants can go to companies with revenues over a <br /> 37 million dollars. He said about half of the funding goes to Hillsborough based companies, and <br /> 38 the LaUNCh incubator funding is in Chapel Hill. <br /> 39 Commissioner Price asked if the incentives recipients could be identified. <br /> 40 Steve Brantley said that is primarily for Morinaga. <br /> 41 Commissioner Price referred to page 63 - food farm products— and asked if there is a <br /> 42 reason for the budget change with this item. <br /> 43 Steve Brantley said the County received a grant from the NC Department of Agriculture <br /> 44 to fund the NC Crop loan, which is a micro loan for Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing <br /> 45 Center (PFAP) tenants. He said the first loan from this was made to Seal the Seasons. He <br /> 46 said these funds had a matching requirement, which is fulfilled by Weaver Street Market. <br /> 47 Commissioner Jacobs said Asheville has regulations for Airbnb properties, and asked if <br /> 48 Orange County has something similar. <br /> 49 Laurie Paolicelli said no, and she said it is time to look into this item. She said <br /> 50 Commissioner Rich is bringing this to the VB board. She said there is an unlevel playing field <br />