County weighs option of special tax

While Orange County commissioners appear to be moving toward putting a special district tax on a ballot, it remains unclear just what the level of support would be for such a tax.

“I am completely opposed to it because it won’t solve the problem,” said Orange County school board member Elizabeth Brown.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are projected to receive an additional $13 million from the special district tax during the 2005-06 fiscal year.

Accounting for this, each city school student receives $1,227 more than an Orange County student.

“The problem is that the Chapel Hill special district tax dictates the amount per pupil that Orange County Schools gets,” Brown said.

Brown said the additional funds put a cap on the amount county schools can receive. When city schools ask for less money from the county, Orange County schools will inevitably lose out, Brown said, because N.C. law requires the county to allocate funding equally on a per pupil basis.

While a county district tax could generate the additional funding, Brown said she believes it would put the county in an unfair position.

“We are not even-steven,” Brown said. “We have a lower property tax base, thousands of acres that are in conservation ­­— (Orange Water and Sewage Authority) alone is 600 acres taken off the tax base.”

Speaking in populists’ terms, she said this creates a scenario in which wealthier Chapel Hill residents will continually be afforded a better education.

“We all need to pitch in for sharing the benefits and the costs of living in one county,” Brown said.

But Mark Peters, whose children attend city schools, said that the county would not be unfairly burdened by a special district tax.

“Are they at a disadvantage with their own special district tax? The answer is ‘No’. The ratio of taxable property is very similar to the ratio of pupils in each district.”

While Brown said she would favor a county-wide tax, it seems unlikely that commissioners will present this option come next November.

“The majority of us see it just see it as a district tax, not a county-wide (tax),” Commissioner Vice Chairman Barry Jacobs said.

Even then, the special district tax would be unlikely to approach the 20-cent tax currently levied on city-school district residents. Recent discussions have the rate hovering around 10 cents.

While some commissioners continue to discuss merging the school systems as potential solution to the disparity, Peters doubts that it would find much support among residents.

“People don’t think they are being represented,” he said. “They see merger as a back door to raising their taxes.”

But one thing is sure: if Orange County residents want financial equity, they will have to shell out a lot more money in taxes.

“It’s absolutely unquestionable that (financial equity) would require folks in the Orange County district to pay substantially more in taxes than they are paying now,” assistant county manager Rod Visser said.

On June 23, county staff will provide a report outlining the legal issues involved in getting the tax on the November ballot.

Link says the commissioners could then put something together during their August 16 meeting.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.