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Commissioner Gordon said that she does not want to cut the schools except to make the salaries increase 3% instead of the larger increase we had budgeted . Beyond that, she would not want to cut more. Commissioner Carey said that he does not want to cut schools or the County, but to get the tax rate below a dollar, there will need to be deeper cuts than just the salary increases. He said that the County will need to cut services and someone will suffer and he does not enjoy cutting schools. Commissioner Foushee said that she shares this sentiment but categorically she is only comfortable with cutting the salary increases as far as the State is. She said that she thinks the Board needs to decide how willing it is to go beyond appropriating 50% or more of the County's budget to schools. She is not comfortable with this either. The target to this point has been 48.1% and last year the County exceeded this. If there is going to be discussion about equity, it has to be about equity throughout the County. She thinks that the County departments have gone above and beyond by offering programs that can be cut. She wants to take this into consideration. Commissioner Carey agreed with Commissioner Foushee. Chair Jacobs said that the County Commissioners are all in agreement not to cut schools and that they appreciate the schools' funding process this year. He said that he thinks the County government has offered up a lot of cuts and while many advocate for schools, County staff does not advocate for itself. If the County Commissioners just cut the $660,000 for teacher salaries, then $4 million will be cut from the County budget. He said that he is interested in seeing cuts above $660,000 from the schools. The County needs to cut $4.96 million from the budget. Commissioner Gordon suggested going through the cuts as a group. Chair Jacobs said that no one disagreed in cutting the $660,000 to match the change in the teacher salary increase that is mandated by the State. This is the first cut. Chair Jacobs said that the Board has already decided to cap contributions at the current level to outside agencies and not to add new agencies this year. Commissioner Carey said that with Club Nova, the County would need to add $68,000 more to meet the request. Donna Coffey said that the total amount to keep all outside agencies at the current level, exclusive of those with one-time funding this year, would be $361,000. Commissioner Carey made reference to the $100,000 for the STEP program and said that it is a great program, and the objective is to expand the program to serve a multi-County area. He would like to see if other counties are willing to contribute to this. He also understands that Representative lnsko has introduced a bill to provide $200,000 for the expansion of the STEP program and $100,000 for the expansion of the OASIS program. If that money is approved, then the STEP program will not need the County's money to expand services to other counties that other counties should be contributing to. He has a question about whether this should be included as a recommended funding category. Chair Jacobs said that staff has included this as a new non-departmental entity that was newly requesting funding that the Board voted not to fund. He went through the cuts that the Board had made so far in Alternative Scenarios for Possible Modifications to the FY 2008-09 Recommended Budget. Item 1-m, Eliminate funding for UNC Psychiatric Care - $100,000; and item 4-p, Maintain current year funding level for contributions to outside agencies- $246,629.