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4- <br />Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />Page 2 <br />June 21, 2005 <br />oroperty value, (The Orange County School District is a school <br />administrative unitjdistrict having a total pcpulation of less <br />than 100,000.) P_ County-wide supplemental tax cannel exceed 604 <br />on each $100.00 of property value, (The County as a whole is an <br />"other school area" having a total population of 100,000 or <br />more,) N,C, Gen, Stat. § 1150-502, <br />3. The tax is effective the ne;ct fiscal year following <br />the election. N.C, Gen. Slat. § 115C-508. <br />a, The board of county commissioners calls the election <br />and fixes the date of the election. N,C, Gen. Stat. § 1150-501; <br />§ 115C-506. County staff has determir_ed, with the help of the <br />Orange County Board of Elections Director, that August lo, 2005 <br />is the latest date an election can be called in time for a <br />DTovember 8, 2005 referendum, That information is pro•rided as <br />another attachment to the agenda item abstract for your <br />consideration, <br />S. The ballot language determines the tax rate limit (not <br />exceeding tY_e statutory maximum) and permitted uses of the <br />supplemental tax proceeds, DT, C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-502; § 115C- <br />511(a), <br />6, If the ta;c is approved by the voters, the board(s) of <br />educatior_ in the annual budget submitted to the board of county <br />commissioners "shall request the rate of a3 ralorem tax it <br />wishes to have levied on its behalf as a school supplemental tax <br />not exceeding the rate approved by the voters.." The board of <br />county commissioners may approve or disapprove the,.,request, in <br />whole or in part, and may levy a rate of supplemental tax "as it <br />may find to be in the best interests of the taxpayers and the <br />public schools, not in excess of the rate requested by the board <br />of education." N.C. Gen, Stat. § 115C-511(b) In_ my December 2, <br />2003 letter to you, I addressed what I think the Board of <br />Commissioners would be required to do in the case of each Board <br />of Education requesting a different tax rate for a County-wide <br />supplemental tax. I concluded then as I do now that the lower <br />rate requested each year is lik_el;~ to be the cap on the levy for <br />the tax each year. <br />Diorth Carolina statutes are silent as to whether a <br />supplemental tax ballot question could time-limit the tax. And, <br />there are no decisions of the North Carolina appellate courts <br />addressing that question, However, a supplemental tax can be <br />abolished by referendum, the referendum called in any manner <br />