Agenda - 10-07-2008 - 6c - Laserfiche WebLink

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~~ and hat there should be some equitable financial relationship whereby Orange County gets some. money back. These four items could be put on an agenda. and the other counties could be informed that Orange County is committed to the project and, that these four items wQUld be. put on an agenda. He directed the. Manager to put this in the form of an agenda item in a' subsequent meeting. Noah Ranells said that staff would .continue to seekout funding opportunities. 3: Local Revenue Clptions Referendum Rod Visser said that the Count~r Commissioners' timeline:for making a decision on this is Tuesday night's meeting,. February 19t . He said that he just came from the sixth meeting of the. Local Revenue Options Committee, and it is in the process of wrapping up the, initial report to the'County Commissioners. This report will. include a list of pros. and cons, observations, comments; etc. There will. be no recommendation because the County Commissioners asked that there not be one. Laura Blackmon said thaf fhe purpose of having this item on the agenda was to see if there were other questions. The meeting on the 19th`will be the pros and cons: and comments; th.e results of the poll, and the decision. :Chair Jacobs said that he did' submit a question to the:County Attorney, which he copied all of the Commissioners on. Geof:Gledhill said. that, he put mote in, the letter than was: asked: He said that ore of the-things that'he has learned is what happens tb the. other half of the two percent excise tax that is already on the books. This goes to the State in a week. Thee question from Chair Jacobs was what exemptions there coukl.te under the law for a land transfer tax,` if the voters approved it. The answer is That ransactions involving property subject to affordable housing or homestead. exemptions would not be exempt from the-'tax: Chair Jacobs said that the County could assist people in this situation by a reimbursement through the general fund and Geof Gledhill said yes. Right now, the County does not reimburse anyone for the excise tax: There is also nc provision in the law to allow local exemption of this tax,. Chair Jacobs said that at fihe public hearing the Board heard about counties near thee. coast that have had tremendous success .using, the real estate transfer tax. He would like to know how transfers in Orange: County have tracked over the last few years. He has heard thaf they have not changed significantly; even in the down housing market. He would like this information. He would also like. to know how many of the affordable units are transferred in an average year Budget Director Donna Coffey aid that she had this information an affordable housing and would provide it late. Rod Visser said that staff would try to get this information by Thursday when the agenda packets are sent out. Commissioner Goctlon said that she wants.to-make sure that there is not'an additional burden on affordable housing. Chair Jacobs said that the'Co'unty Commissioners are interested, in helping lower income people, especially seniors, deal with property taxes. As changes are made in taxation, he wants to know what is being done to the environment of people who are living in,affordable housing. Commissioner Nelson asked about the education process. Rod Visser said that the committee has not talked too much about that yet because it has .been approached iri two phases. The first phase is the committee educating itself about the mechanics of the two revenue options. He said that he would see it being; similar to the .education of bond referenda.. Commissioner Nelson said that he has same concerns because obis is very`difierent from bond referenda. He said that there are- a. lot of politics. related to this and a large amount of money that realtors and homebuilders have put into this. He said that the County cannot run this like if has run other bond referenda. He has concerns about not having enough time'to do it