Notes from the County Mgr's Presentation of 2005-2006 Operating Budget by the Orange County Board of Commissioners
5/26/2005 Budget Presentation to BOCC
(typical disclaimers apply - these notes are taken on a best effort basis - only quoted items are quotes - changes will be posted to orangecitizens.org)
[ ] indicates note taker's own comments
(The presentation will be posted probably tomorrow or Tuesday, based on notes from county staff. http://www.co.orange.nc.us/budget/index.htm contains an overview doc as of early afternoon and an education doc as of right before the meeting)
John Link (County Mgr): Thanked county staff and school superintendents and their staff.
(John basically read the presentation, which is a presentation version of the document currrently posted on the website. SO, not much to take notes about).
Number of families receiving food stamps increased by 50%. Medicaid caseload up 20%.
-- EDUCATION --
Equity discussed during 4/15 work session.
Equity in process of being defined: Programmatic vs. equal per pupil funding
Possible framework for 05-06 using a 3 Tier system
[QUESTION: Will equity tier be used always in a per-pupil fashion? Note that if it is not, then taxes will not be used equitably]
Annual student growth
$95 per pupil increase will be given [CHCCS requested $270 per pupil increase]
Actual salary/benefit funds needed are subject to change during state budget process.
Recommendation does not address current OCS program enhancements paid via fund balance nor CHCCS fund balance adjustment.
CHCCS Base # is 10986
OCS Base # is 6832
CHCCS -123 students (NOTE THAT CHCCS continues to grow, but state-mandated formulas overestimated growth last year, so this is a correction that CHCCS did not grow as quickly as forecast)
OCS +181
Recommended per pupil $2718
Link noted that commissioners and Link received many emails for full funding
If full funding were to be achieved, then the tax would go up an additional 4 to 4.5 cents [approx another 5-6 percent]
Recommends that CHCCS district tax stay the same (ie - it will be adjusted only on re-evaluation)
BOCC may consider additional school funding, such as Tier III - Middle college & school resource officers, which would free up funding [Q: How much does this save?]
NEW "Critical Needs Reserve", holding $1M aside for allocation after June. Could address Tier II (state cuts) or Tier III (equity)
--CAPITAL FUNDING--
New budget implements Option 2 of the 60/40 proposal.
Uncertainty of lottery.
Public School building fund might get yanked by state. [Orange receives approx $800K annually for debt service on school construction]
$100K construction manager initiative for a 3 year pilot effort to provide independent, critical review of projects
County staff receive 2.5 percent raise and various other performance incentives & employee health insurance increase of 15.9%
-- ON THE HORIZON --
Startup cost challenges for OCS MS3 and CHCCS HS3.
Assuming successful property acquisition negotiations and future operations of senior center / Sportsplex.
Public hearings: 5/31 (SHRC) & 6/2 (Battle Courtroom, Hillsborough)
Work sessions 6/9 (SHRC), 6/14 (Gov Svcs Ctr), 6/16 (SHRC)
SHRC = Southern Human Resources Center
Said that budget can be found in certain county locations.
Said that budget can be accessed on the website (in present tense) [but note that it IS NOT available right now, probably not until sometime next week]
-- Q&A --
Gordon: $4.9M is 4 cents on tax rate. Why does it cost 3 cents to "reinstate" the 3 cents for school?
Donna Dean: We have only been allocating 2 cents for schools.
Gordon: If we had 2 cents which was the stream has only been temporarily diverted, then why is the whole 4 cents having to be reinstated? Why is is $4M?
Dean: It is an increase in the original budget. The school recurring capital has been diverted to cover current expense. To reinstate it would cost more... ???
Visser: during 04-05, 2 cents was earmarked, so to bring it to 3 is an increase of 1 penny. (then something else that was another penny). If you add school, county recurring, and county long range capital, then that adds up to 4 cents.
Gordon: I see the discrepancy - The county long range capital is looming large - 2 cents.
--
Jacobs: Could you run the budget with a zero cent increase, for comparison purposes. (I think that is what he asked)
Link: I have not done that to this point. The $1.9M debt service has to be done and the $95 school could be eliminated, but I don't want to quote a zero percent.
Jacobs: (asked some stuff, but I couldn't follow)
--
Halkiotis: Thank you Alice for pointing out the long range visionary items, because I couldn't figure that out either. So I would like to know what these are. I think they were a bit unclear. Like Jacobs, I would also like to see the scenarios you have done in the past [which I guess is a zero percent increase]. The Wake County schools asked for $25M and only got $16M, and the system is cutting positions, and the Wake county commissioners are saying that the school system is just pulling a stunt. I don't want to see that happen here (referring to staff cuts, I think). (talked about old times). I dug through and want to know why recommendations are being made to fund the 6 items to fund more for non-departmental [Since I can't access this online, I have no clue what these items are]. I am leary that groups are doing work that the health dept or social services used to be doing. I would like to see the two sheets that show all the non-departmental summaries. How many of these provide services to both school systems? Also want to talk about services costs & utilities. Do we have a strategic plan for lowering fuel costs? A conservation effort may sound nice, but I have seen people fight over thermostats. I would like our utility costs for all of our buildings broken out by type of fuel & water and the square footage of each building. Does any elected official know how much we spend on utility costs? John, how much did we spend on utilities last year?
Link: I don't know
H: Let's focus in on the bottom of the ladder and build them up so that they are not below the living wage. Ie - have we looked at any differentiated approach for salaries? .. I am afraid that we are going to be facing budget gaps for the next 10-15 years. We are told 4M people are coming here and more services will be needed and more mandates from the state legisl. The secretary needs to bring extra batteries and breakfast, as we are going to be at the hearings past midnight for the budget hearings.
--
Carey: Asked about living wage and if it was included.
Elaine Holmes - Personnel director: Living wage increased (see Link's materials on minimum wage increase)
--
Gordon: Just to follow up, I would be interested in the information that Halkiotis asked for. I would like to see the line item detail.
Dean: We will provide it. [Q: Will it be on the website?]
Gordon: (asked a question about debt service)
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Notes Submitted by Mark Peters
http://www.orangecitizens.org/article.php?story=20050526234449161