Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson announced today he will not seek re-election when his seat comes up next year. Here is his statement:

"Though the primary is next May, the filing period begins shortly after the first of the year. I’m announcing early to provide sufficient notice to those who have interest in running for the Board."

"It takes considerable effort to create a campaign organization, recruit volunteers, raise money and to do all the other things necessary to run a campaign in a county as large and diverse as Orange. I want to make sure interested parties have time to build strong campaigns."

"Orange County rich with talent, and I am confident that a number of public service minded candidates will emerge."

"I'm grateful that the citizens of Orange County gave me the opporunity to serve. You are passionate, engaged, progressive and dedicated. You insist on quality schools, a clean environment, a social safety net that protects the weakest amongst us, and you believe there is strength in diversity. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve you."

That cheesburger and fries may be doing more harm than to your waistline.

On his blog Leading from the Left, Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson laments the county board's recent failure to ban new drive-thru windows in its jurisdiction.

Sure, they’re convenient. But when a car idles for an hour, Nelson says, it emits nearly 4 lbs of CO2. “Of course, we don't idle our cars for an hour at any one time. But add up how many cars are idling in line at a fast-food restaurant the next time you drive past or at the bank.”

The proposed ban failed by a 3-4 vote. Nelson, Bernadette Pellisier and Alice Gordon voted for the proposal. After the vote failed, Commissioner Barry Jacobs moved to discuss the matter again in the fall and requested additional information.

"He may eventually vote for a ban, so the battle is not yet lost,” Nelson says.

It's not official until next week's formal vote, but the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 6 to 1 tonight (Thursday) to approve a resolution of intent to pass a $177.6 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Only Pam Hemminger, the former Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board chairwoman, voted against the budget. County Manager Laura Blackmon's budget cuts school funding to 48.1 percent of the county's general fund.

The tax rate falls to 85.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value to reflect revaluation. The new tax rate is revenue neutral, meaning the county should take in the same amount of property tax revenue as this year. That doesn't mean your tax bills stay the same, even if your home appreciated at the county average. Most taxpayers will see a property tax bill increase because of expected drops in revenue on other taxable property such as cars.

Still, the commissioners praised Blackmon, who got strong applause on her last budget before leaving county government.

"We are being fiscally conservative, and we are doing the best we can," Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.

The budget is down from the $183 million budget originally proposed for the current fiscal year. Commissioner Alice Gordon noted. "That's real dollars," she said. "We've cut the budget more than $5 million."

Orange County Commissioner Alice Gordon says the Orange County Board of Commissioners wants to keep the Carrboro and Cedar Grove branch libraries open.

The board held a budget work session last night. It did not vote and nothing is official, but Gordon said: "The outlook is good for keeping those libraries. I think most, if not all of us, want to do that."

The proposed county budget calls for closing the Carrboro and Cedar Grove libraries and transferring staff to the new main county library opening in Hillsborough this fall. The Carrboro Cybrary in the Century Center downtown, with its six computer stations and small reading area, would stay open.

Closing the Carrboro and Cedar Grove branches would save $45,373 in the county manager's proposed $177.6 million budget.

The county-run libraries are separate from the Chapel Hill Public Library, which is run by the town of Chapel Hill. The commissioners and the town boards of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough are scheduled to talk about libraries this fall. Chapel Hill has been concerned about out-of-town residents using its library with no increase in the county's contribution and and has floated the idea of charging a fee. Some have said closing the Carrboro library would send even more non-Chapel Hill residents to that library, making a fee more likely.

Gordon said it only makes sense to keep the two county library branches open until that discussion takes place.

"I don't think we're at the point where we need to close libraries," she said. "I think the will is there to keep the libraries open."         

Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson has a suggestion to help Gov. Perdue and the state through the recession: gay marriage.

On his blog Leading from the Left, Nelson, the former mayor of Carrboro, says a study out of the UCLA School of Law shows gay marriage has pumped big bucks into Massachessetts coffers.  

“A new study reports that Marriage Equality has pumped over $100M into the Massachussetts economy since that state equalized marriage rights in 2004," Nelson writes. "Governor Perdue, you've got a big budget gap to fill. How 'bout it .... ?" 

The report from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law says a typical same-sex couple spent about $7,400 on their wedding, with one in 10 couples spending over $20,000, according to WCVB TV in Boston.

M.V. Lee Badgett, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts and a study co-author, says allowing gay couples to marry has helped businesses in tough economic times, the station reported.

From correspondent Colin Campbell:

A new elementary school in the Northside neighborhood might be put on hold due to funding shortages, the Orange County Board of Commissioners told Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board members last night.

School board members were surprised. The commissioners had previously committed to funding Elementary School 11 – scheduled to open in fall 2011 – and plans to design the building and get approval from the Chapel Hill Town Council are already under way.

“It really does come as a shock tonight that we need to lay off our architect and everyone involved with that project,” school board Chairwoman Lisa Stuckey said.

Superintendent Neil Pedersen noted the issues delaying construction would create, including whether to continue moving the building through the approval process in Chapel Hill and whether to delay moving pre-kindergarten programs housed on the site.

“You already have a fairly significant investment in this project,” Pedersen said. “We need some more discussion about the future of that project.”

Commissioners said they're just not sure the county can afford to move ahead right now.

"None of us want to change the direction in which we were headed for Elementary 11,” board of commissioners chairwoman Valerie Foushee said. “The county’s ability to do it right now is just uncertain.”

Commissioner Barry Jacobs noted that if available funding isn’t enough to build the school, the county might instead fund construction of Carrboro High School’s arts wing. But it’s also possible that funding would not be available for either project.

Just picked up a flier at Weaver Street for tonight's meeting of the county commissioners. The county is scheduled to discuss the search for a solid waste transfer station (not to make a decision as the flier says, as far as we know).

Folks who have been asking the county to explore hauling trash to a regional transfer station or to dispose of waste through alternative technologies are likely to be disappointed. A report prepared for the meeting says the first would cost significantly more than hauling trash to one of two sites in White Cross. The report says the second idea is just not practical.

Meanwhile, the county has bought itself some time. The county landfill on Eubanks Road, which was expected to reach capacity in mid-2011, now appears to have enough space to last until mid-2012.

The county gained the additional year by asking UNC to redirect garbage, using an alternative daily cover that takes up less space than dirt, buying a better waste compactor to compress garbage at the landfill and by banning residential cardboard as of last November.

Tonight's meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestad Road in Chapel Hill.

NOTE: The following letter came too late for tomorrow's Chapel Hill News. It was written in response to a story about the county budget that ran in Wednesday's News & Observer. The letter will appear in Wednesday's CH News.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners seeks to avoid a tax increase in 2009 and is committed to spending cuts and a revenue neutral tax rate (no increase in income to the county).

We accept the county attorney’s opinion that rescinding the 2009 revaluation is not legal at this date, and believe that such an adjustment would not solve our collective and individual financial difficulties.

The other night the commissioners directed the county manager to produce a budget for fiscal year 2009-10 that reflects a rate of spending no higher than supported by a revenue neutral tax rate. Assumed is a spending level reduced by a minimum of $8.7 million from 2008-09, about 5 percent.

The manager also was asked to provide recommendations for additional, significant, targeted cuts below that rate of spending. Those reductions, to be considered later this spring, could allow property taxes to be set below the revenue neutral rate. Further cuts will be balanced against our historic commitment to public safety, education, environmental protection, and support for those least able to help themselves.

The commissioners agreed to apply the same cap on increases for all taxing districts, including the district tax for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and fire department tax rates, subject to consultation with each affected entity.

The commissioners pledged to dedicate 48.1 percent of Orange County’s spending to our public schools, a previously agreed-upon target that maintains a longstanding tradition of superior support for education.

We also directed staff to send letters that offer assistance in reviewing and reducing appraised values to the approximately 10 percent of Orange County property owners who saw the largest valuation increases, 40 percent or more. (The average increase was 24 percent.) County staff will assist with appeals through June 2009. The back page of the letter will provide eligibility information for seniors and the handicapped seeking homestead exemptions and circuit breaker assistance under state law.

The Orange County commissioners understand and share concerns raised by taxation, government spending, and shrinking services in these difficult economic times. We remain committed to responding to, and balancing, the needs of all the residents of Orange County.

Valerie Foushee
Alice Gordon
Pam Hemminger
Barry Jacobs
Mike Nelson
Bernadette Pelissier
Steve Yuhasz
Orange County Board of Commissioners

Valerie Foushee, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, responded to our transfer station question (about whether the county might revisit the Eubanks Road landfill as a possible site.)

"At present, the county has not changed its course of action regarding the siting of the transfer station," she writes. "That is not to say that during the course of budget discussions for FY 2009-10, the costs for the siting, construction, and the cost of transporting solid waste out of the county will not lead to a revisiting of sites that were previously ruled out."

About 50 residents attended a meeting with solid waste director Gayle Wilson Sunday night in White Cross. Read a report on the meeting in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.

At Saturday's retreat, the Orange County commissioners looked at a lot of graphs. One compared the growth in the county's general fund, which pays for operating expenses, and the growth in the value of real property. Property taxes paid for 71 percent of the county's $183 million budget this fiscal year.

The problem, according to Commissioner Mike Nelson, is that the first number has been increasing at a higher rate than the second. In other words, the county is increasing its spending faster than property taxes have been growing to pay for that spending. In fact, projections show county spending rising 5.8 percent a year over the next five years while property values rise just 3.9 percent.

The county can offset the difference by continuing to draw down its reserves or, of course, by raising the tax rate on that real property base.   

Neither is palatable to Nelson, a relatively new commissioner and former mayor of Carrboro.

"I have a fundamental, philosophical, ideological problem with the way this organization had done budgeting," he told county budget director Donna Coffey, County Manager Laura Blackmon and his fellow board members. "It's brought about tax increases."

Read more from the retreat in this week's News & Observer and Chapel Hill News.