Minutes 06-11-19 Budget Work Session

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10 Commissioner McKee said this issue was debated and decided in the mid-2000s when merger was discussed, and Commissioner Dorosin's suggestion would shift the cost to the OCS taxpayers, and the tax increase would be divided 60% to CHCCS and 40% to OCS. Commissioner Dorosin said it is misleading to describe it this way, as everyone will pay the tax increase. Commissioner McKee said but that was Commissioner Dorosin's wording in an email. Commissioner Dorosin said everyone pays the increase, and $2 million comes in from everyone, and is divided according to ADM, just as it always has been. He said it is not accurate to say that OCS is subsidizing CHCCS Commissioner McKee said CHCCS taxpayers will be tax neutral with a 1-cent reduction in the district tax and a 1-cent increase in County property tax. He said it would not be neutral for the OCS taxpayer. Commissioner Dorosin said but the monies would be divided the same way that all County money is divided for the schools. Commissioner Price said CHCCS would still receive the special tax. Commissioner McKee said yes, but it would be decreased by a penny. Commissioner McKee said CHCCS would be a penny less in the district tax and one more penny in the County tax, which makes it tax neutral for CHCCS taxpayers. He said for OCS taxpayers, it amounts to a 1-cent tax increase, of which only 40% goes to OCS schools. Commissioner Dorosin said Commissioner McKee could say that about every penny that is collected: 60% goes to CHCCS and 40% to OCS. Commissioner McKee said in every other case, a 1-cent increase is for everybody in the County, and in this case it is a 1-cent increase for the OCS taxpayers, and no increase for CHCCS taxpayers. Commissioner McKee said he is in complete agreement with Commissioner Dorosin about the inequity of the funding, but this is a tax that was put in specifically by the residents of Chapel Hill for the residents of the CHCCS through the legislature through special action. He said it has been in effect for years, and while he would love to find some way to address it, he does not know how to do so. He said the only way he can see to make a change is to permanently freeze the district tax, and over a long period of time, the increases in funding would shift. Commissioner Dorosin said he does not think this is true, because if the Board freezes the district funding and raises the property tax every year, there will always be the gap where the district funding was frozen. He said the outcome of his proposal is that the per pupil spending for OCS will go up, and the per pupil spending for CHCCS will remain the same. Commissioner Bedford said she was on the 2006 committee about fair funding, and OCS turned down a special district tax as the tax base was lower. She said the committee struggled with what would be most fair, and the County has to fund the same per pupil amount. She said the committee considered the will of the taxpayers, and how satisfied people were with the schools. She said the committee found that residents are happy with the schools overall, and residents of northern Orange County were unwilling to pay as much as the residents in the CHCCS district. She said it is not just an issue of where people can afford to live. She said CHCCS has 27% free and reduced lunch, and even undocumented people will find ways to live in the district to access the education. She said she lives in a 1500 square foot ranch in CHCCS because that is what she could afford, and needed to be CHCCS to best meet the needs of her child with autism. She said CHCCS has 600% more special education and autistic children than the state would predict or expect. She said all of these variables must be considered. Commissioner Bedford said this is not the year to do this proposed amendment, as the BOCC is not even fully funding the CHCCS continuation budget. She said the Manager's proposed increase will fund the OCS continuation budget, but not the expansion budget. She