Agenda - 09-02-2021; 4-a - Discussion and Appointment for the Vacant Position on the Orange County Board of Commissioners

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19 Orange County has consistently had the highest per pupil spending in the state in both school districts. The target of 48.1%of the county's budget is a starting point each year for school investment. While 1 was on the board there has never been a year where spending fell below this and in many years it is at 50%or higher of the overall county budget. A recent study reported that a majority of U.S. public school districts need to make major building repairs in at least half of their schools, yet many districts are left on their own to pay for these repairs. The state of North Carolina does not provide funding for school construction or renovation leaving it to counties to generate support through property taxes or bonds. We can not tax our way out of this problem. The only other option is to borrow money through a bond. Likely 2 bonds spread out over a period of time. Furthermore, the General Assembly needs additional pressure from county officials to place Governor Cooper's infrastructure bond on the ballot, which would in part pay for additional funding for school buildings.Additionally, as commissioners we need to work with Congressman Price, who serves on the House Budget Committee, to receive our fair share of the$129 billion from the American Recovery Plan dedicated to school building repairs to add to previously allocated local funding. 7. Do you support the 1909 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools special district tax? How should it be used? Commissioners can not create or eliminate a school district tax or any other overlay tax as it is legislated by the General Assembly. 1 take my lead from the residents in the CHCCS district. If they continue to feel confident that the distinct tax is beneficial to the system, l will continue to support it. I support public school/education and always want what is best for each child. I raised two boys in Chapel Hill and both attended the CHCCS K-12 system and continued onto public colleges in the UNC system. Orange County Commissioners have a limited role on how the district tax or any other funding to the school/s is spent. In each budget year there is CIP(Capital Improvement Plan for building construction, renovations and repairs)funding and Operational funding supplied to the 2 school systems. I believe the Orange County Commissioners have always respected the school board/s role in directing funds as needed by their districts. 8. What is your vision for how Orange County should grow economically? In 2019, 1 was closely involved with our efforts first hand as chair of the BOCC, and on the County's small business loan advisory board.Along with the Economic Development team, I was eager to support the diverse economic mix including a broad range of job, salary, and skill options, as well as making progress on our tax base. Those new employment opportunities helped Orange County residents seek full time jobs, at or above the living wage, and with benefits. Examples of these diverse efforts during my tenure as a commissioner and Board Chair included: Wegmans(in collaboration with Chapel Hill), the ABB expansion (in collaboration with Mebane), Medline Industries(in collaboration with Mebane), and Well Dot(in collaboration with Chapel Hill). The cumulative value of those projects totaled approximately$125 million in taxable investment and over 1,400 new jobs. Orange County should continue to explore a variety of economic development options and various job opportunities for all segments of our community. Also, in 2019-20 the County issued over$1 million dollars in COVID-related emergency financial assistance grants to small businesses, with many of these grants issued to women and BIPOC-owned small businesses. These grants enable these valued locally owned businesses to recover and grow. We need to continue supporting small/homegrown businesses, local agriculture and farms, and our minority business owners. More money from these local small businesses stay in the community and those dollars circulate in ways that larger, out of town businesses simply do not.