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of some funds. Chair Jacobs asked that this be done via a letter from the Board of County Commissioners. Commissioner Nelson said that he feels obligated to talk about the number of positions recommended. The Board has not discussed what an acceptable tax rate would be. He said that his inclination is not to support any new positions at this time. The County Commissioners need to discuss this. Chair Jacobs said that the Board should have that discussion now. Laura Blackmon said that a couple of the categories are ones that the Board needs to discuss regarding how to handle the service load. Category one is for staff needed to open new facilities and a lot more were on the original list for new facilities. Regarding the change in funding status, the Health Department is on the list for cutting. The one in Housing is a misuse of funds. Chair Jacobs suggested talking about a goal for a tax rate. Chair Jacobs said that he does not believe that the County should go to one dollar for the tax rate. Commissioner Carey said that he does not want to go over one dollar. He said that he recognizes that some positions need to be added for public safety issues and statutory requirements, but overall, everyone will have to take some tough hits, including education. Commissioner Foushee said that the Housing and Community Development position is a change in the way it is funded and not a new position. Commissioner Foushee said that she too wants to keep the tax rate under a dollar. Commissioner Nelson said that he is comfortable with the tax increase that was explained to voters that would come along with not approving the land transfer tax, which was 2.75 cents. He knows that he is not comfortable going to a dollar. Regarding the schools, he said that OCS set the tone in terms of the budget and showed some leadership, as did CHCCS. He said that he would not agree to cutting the schools' budgets, and the leadership should be rewarded. Commissioner Gordon said that she will not go on record one way or the other about the tax rate other than to say that it cannot be as high as what is currently recommended. She does not believe that the County can fund almost 24 new candidate positions. She said that OCS cut six positions and CHCCS also cut some positions. To make the cuts, she would first look at not funding new positions. She said she is concerned about debt service and school growth. Chair Jacobs said that there are four Commissioners that are determined to keep the tax rate under a dollar. He does not want all of the cuts to come from County government. He said that the County departments and outside agencies are being funded in the Manager's proposal at 96.3% and the schools at 98.5%. He wants all to share the burden. He agrees that the schools did a good job, especially OCS, of trying to point out the minimum that it can get by with. Chair Jacobs said that when the Mayor of Chapel Hill came and asked the County Commissioners to raise the funding of the Chapel Hill Library he thought just the opposite, that maybe the County should stop funding it and try and put some money into one of the two Carrboro library branches, and just have Orange County residents buy a library card at the Chapel Hill library. This would save Orange County $200,000. Commissioner Carey agreed that the County should share the burden with everyone. He also agrees that both school systems should be rewarded for coming with a lower increase. He said that the County staff should be rewarded too and the County needs have been neglected for too long. He said that the schools need to share in the burden too. He said that he would rather invest in the Orange County libraries rather than Chapel Hill's library. Commissioner Gordon said that she would not vote to decrease funding to the Chapel Hill library. The County Commissioners just received the Library Services Task Force report, which suggested more collaboration between the two library systems, not less.