Orange County NC Website
9 <br /> 1 decisions should be based on what it costs to provide the quality of education that the students <br /> 2 in Orange County should receive. He said if this is $6000 per pupil (which is what is received in <br /> 3 CHCCS), then the County should work towards every child getting this amount. He said he <br /> 4 does not believe it costs $2000 more to educate a child in CHCCS, as opposed to the Orange <br /> 5 County Schools (OCS). <br /> 6 Commissioner Marcoplos applauded Commissioner Dorosin for bringing this forward. <br /> 7 He said it is a complicated issue, and for the Board to address this properly there needs to be a <br /> 8 more in-depth process and involve all of the stakeholders. He said Commissioner Dorosin's <br /> 9 suggestion is great for the schools, but the burden will fall on the OCS taxpayers. <br /> 10 Commissioner Marcoplos proposed to take this seriously, but to discuss this process in <br /> 11 more detail. He said making a quick action right now would not be in the best interest of the <br /> 12 County. <br /> 13 Commissioner McKee said this issue was debated and decided in the mid-2000s when <br /> 14 merger was discussed, and Commissioner Dorosin's suggestion would shift the cost to the OCS <br /> 15 taxpayers, and the tax increase would be divided 60% to CHCCS and 40% to OCS. <br /> 16 Commissioner Dorosin said it is misleading to describe it this way, as everyone will pay <br /> 17 the tax increase. <br /> 18 Commissioner McKee said but that was Commissioner Dorosin's wording in an email. <br /> 19 Commissioner Dorosin said everyone pays the increase, and $2 million comes in from <br /> 20 everyone, and is divided according to ADM,just as it always has been. He said it is not <br /> 21 accurate to say that OCS is subsidizing CHCCS <br /> 22 Commissioner McKee said CHCCS taxpayers will be tax neutral with a 1-cent reduction <br /> 23 in the district tax and a 1-cent increase in County property tax. He said it would not be neutral <br /> 24 for the OCS taxpayer. <br /> 25 Commissioner Dorosin said but the monies would be divided the same way that all <br /> 26 County money is divided for the schools. <br /> 27 Commissioner Price said CHCCS would still receive the special tax. <br /> 28 Commissioner McKee said yes, but it would be decreased by a penny. <br /> 29 Commissioner McKee said CHCCS would be a penny less in the district tax and one <br /> 30 more penny in the County tax, which makes it tax neutral for CHCCS taxpayers. He said for <br /> 31 OCS taxpayers, it amounts to a 1-cent tax increase, of which only 40% goes to OCS schools. <br /> 32 Commissioner Dorosin said Commissioner McKee could say that about every penny that <br /> 33 is collected: 60% goes to CHCCS and 40% to OCS. <br /> 34 Commissioner McKee said in every other case, a 1-cent increase is for everybody in the <br /> 35 County, and in this case it is a 1-cent increase for the OCS taxpayers, and no increase for <br /> 36 CHCCS taxpayers. <br /> 37 Commissioner McKee said he is in complete agreement with Commissioner Dorosin <br /> 38 about the inequity of the funding, but this is a tax that was put in specifically by the residents of <br /> 39 Chapel Hill for the residents of the CHCCS through the legislature through special action. He <br /> 40 said it has been in effect for years, and while he would love to find some way to address it, he <br /> 41 does not know how to do so. He said the only way he can see to make a change is to <br /> 42 permanently freeze the district tax, and over a long period of time, the increases in funding <br /> 43 would shift. <br /> 44 Commissioner Dorosin said he does not think this is true, because if the Board freezes <br /> 45 the district funding and raises the property tax every year, there will always be the gap where <br /> 46 the district funding was frozen. He said the outcome of his proposal is that the per pupil <br /> 47 spending for OCS will go up, and the per pupil spending for CHCCS will remain the same. <br /> 48 Commissioner Bedford said she was on the 2006 committee about fair funding, and <br /> 49 OCS turned down a special district tax as the tax base was lower. She said the committee <br /> 50 struggled with what would be most fair, and the County has to fund the same per pupil amount. <br /> 51 She said the committee considered the will of the taxpayers, and how satisfied people were with <br />