By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
The Orange County Board of Commissioners and the boards of both county school systems agreed on Tuesday that the majority of the budgetary issues they face for the coming year are not local, but coming down from state legislators in Raleigh.
The boards of education of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools presented their budgets to the county commissioners, and both boards painted a bleak picture.
Steve Halkiotis, a member of the Orange County Schools Board of Education and a former county commissioner, said the schools’ only option was in local government.
“I’m going to thank you in advance, because I know that you’re going to do the right thing,†he said. “If we were to cut you open right now, we’d find a heart inside of you, and not cold ice water like some of those people sitting in Raleigh.
“It’s going to be up to us to change some of those mentalities in Raleigh any way we can. We have to outlive them, we have to outthink them, we’ve got to wear them out, wear them down,†he continued. “We love Orange County, and we care about the children of Orange County.â€
Chapel Hill-Carrboro has requested $36.6 million in county funding for 2011-12, which represents the same funding level as 2010-11, but an increase in per-pupil funding from $3,096 to $3,126. The request also assumes that the special district-tax rate – specific to Chapel Hill-Carrboro – will remain at 18.84 cents per $100 of valuation, and that the assessed value of the district tax base will increase by 1 percent, resulting in $18.7 million in revenues, an increase of about $100,000 over 2010-11.
Orange County Schools has requested about $23 million in county funding for 2011-12, a slight increase from 2010-11 funding levels of $22.8 million.
The state House has proposed an 8.8 percent reduction in funding for K-12 public education, which would mean a $5.5 million loss for Chapel Hill-Carrboro and $3.3 million for Orange County Schools. Both districts may also face hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased workers’ compensation plans, as well as losses in Smart Start and More at Four funding.
In addition, state legislators have proposed the elimination of teacher assistants for grades two and three.
Both boards have identified potential major reductions in staffing and programs as they brace for state and federal budget cuts. The boards also plan to tap into available fund balances to bear some of the weight of the cuts.
Members of the three boards also discussed the quarter-cent sales-tax referendum that will be on the November ballot. The county commissioners voted earlier this month to dedicate 50 percent of that funding to education and 50 percent to economic development, should the tax be approved by voters.
Commissioners asked school board members to develop prioritized lists with specific projects that would be funded by the tax, which failed on the November 2010 ballot.
“There was a sense that our commitment was a little fuzzy, and it was a little hard for people to understand what this money was going to be used for,†Commissioner Steve Yuhasz said. “It’s really up to the school boards to provide us with the information that we need.â€