By Hannah W. Wever

Published: April 17, 2008

It will cost more to own land in Orange County when the next real estate tax bill comes due, because the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to adopt the $133,160,815 budget, to adopt a $.05 tax rate increase, (bringing the rate to $0.47 per $100 of assessed valuation), and to adopt a FY 2008-09 $51,049,288 capital improvements plan.
Votes on the three items were not unanimous. Consistent with her position throughout budget discussions, District 4 Supervisor Teri Pace adamantly opposed the budget, as well as the tax increase and the capital improvements plan adoption. Much of Pace’s dispute was with county officials’ decision to build a $44 million middle school in the eastern end of the county. There were alternatives, she said, that could still provide needed space for students, but with a smaller price tag.
“I think the school project is very dangerous. I think it will cause a lot of financial hardship to all the residents,” Pace said. “We could avoid it and that’s the shame, to me. We can meet our schools’ needs and save our taxpayers a substantial amount of money.”
District 1 Supervisor Mark Johnson voted in favor of adopting the budget, along with District 3 Supervisor Teel Goodwin and District 5 Supervisor Lee Frame. Pace and District 2 Supervisor Zack Burkett voted against adopting the budget.
“We have discussed and discussed the schools,” Burkett said. “The fact is, I can’t vote for the budget with the schools in it.”
Throughout the budget process, supervisors had dissected the proposed budget, looking for opportunities to cut costs, and consequently avoid the $.09 tax rate increase that was originally proposed. Over the course of a series of work sessions, officials chose to close the Child Garden daycare facility, made drastic reductions to parks and recreation program funding, lowered a teacher pay raise from a requested 5.5 percent down to 4.5 percent, and agreed to fund only a fraction of the county schools’ capital improvements plan. Those slashes, along with a number of nips and tucks in other areas ultimately brought the budget down, which resulted in a $.04 reduction in the tax rate increase.
Johnson, Goodwin and Frame voted in favor of adopting the $.05 tax rate increase, bringing the real estate tax rate to $.47, while Burkett abstained, and Pace voted against it.
The $198,695,302 capital improvements plan includes projects county officials hope to complete over the next five years. The bottom line for projects already on the calendar for 2008-2009 is $51,049,288.
The biggest ticket item, by far, on the 2008-2009 capital improvements list is $45,745,000 for schools. That figure includes the $44,778,000 for the new middle school, plus funding for school buses and all other schools capital improvement costs.
“We’re on very dangerous ground with the $44,780,000,” Pace said, “so I certainly cannot vote for the capital improvements plan.”
And she didn’t. But Johnson, Burkett, Goodwin, and Frame did, and the five-year capital improvements plan was adopted.