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Karen Dunn said that last year when it was presented to the County Commissioners, this question came up. She said that it takes large public and private support to operate Club Nova, and with all of the changes going on in mental health it is necessary to continue to receive the funding. She said that the County Commissioners were clear that they wanted Club Nova to try and make up the funding without the supplement from the County. Commissioner Carey said that he remembers making the comment that if the Board makes the commitment, the need will not go away. Karen Dunn said that they try and do fundraising. She said that one of the things Club Nova uses County funding for is transportation. Chair Jacobs asked about Club Nova's total budget and Karen Dunn said $750,000. b. KidsCope Gwen Harvey introduced Linda Foxworth. She said that the question the Board had in regards to the funding amount requested by the agency for 2008-09 was what made up the difference between the previous fiscal year, which was $114,200. Chair Jacobs said that there were two questions. One was the difference and the other was the same question about whether the Board said that this was a one-time appropriation or a continuing contribution. Gwen Harvey said that, historically, KidsCope has been a part of the outside agency process with funding of about $89,000. This past fiscal year, the Board granted a supplemental appropriation of$50,000, which bumped the appropriation up to $139,000. The request for 2008-09 was $114,200. Linda Foxworth said that this represents the lease/rent that the Orange County Schools had KidsCope pay for occupancy. She said that last year KidsCope had a $221,000 deficit and then OCS started charging rent. This year, this request was put into the ongoing application. The $89,000 converts to the $114,200 because of the rent. c. Other Commissioner Foushee said that the Board needs to be clear with outside agencies and perhaps a letter should go out to insure that the outside agency funding process is understood. Commissioner Carey agreed. Chair Jacobs suggested that the Board needs to make clear to the Human Services Advisory Commission that the County Commissioners appreciate their work on this and that all funding is subject to availability of funds. He suggested sending a letter to the HSAC on behalf of the Board of Commissioners. 2. Budget Decision Items— Mark-Up and Mark-Down Items Chair Jacobs suggested that before the County Commissioners get into specifics, that they should state their areas of agreement so that there are some basic premises. As an example, four members wanted to keep the tax rate under$1.00. All agreed about this. He has also heard several Commissioners say that they did not want to see school funding go over % of the budget and Commissioner Carey agreed. Commissioner Carey said that he remembers saying that when cuts are made in the County budget, that the schools make proportional cuts. • Commissioner Nelson said that it does not look like the legislature will fund a salary increase over 3% for teachers' salaries. He does not feel comfortable cutting the schools' budgets because of how hard they worked at keeping their budgets lean this year. Commissioner Foushee said that she is only comfortable reducing to the amount that it appears that the State is going to recommend in terms of teachers' salaries.