BC 2016 05 16 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 16, 2016 (Regular Meeting) Page 2738 order to enhance levels of service, meet the demands of a growing community and improve customer service. We've addressed the growing capital and current expense needs of our two public school systems and Rowan Cabarrus Community College is also addressed in a manner that is sustainable for the near future. There is also increased funding to address growing deferred maintenance projects. Economic and Operational impacts_ on the County Budget 1. Cabarrus County, like most metropolitan areas of the region, state and country, continued to experience a high volume of residential, commercial and industrial growth over the last year. This growth created a positive impact to the County's revenues, as well. Projections indicate ad valorem and sales tax revenues will increase by $10,943,770 in FY17. This equates to projected growth of 6.73% in ad valorem taxes and 3.89% in sales taxes, when comparing amended budget FY16 to projected budget FY17. Staff continues to monitor potential impacts to our revenue streams, including state and national economic forecasts and projections identified by the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners; however, the County uses a conservative approach when projecting for our budgetary purposes. 2. Cabarrus County's population continues to increase each month. The North Carolina Office of Budget and Management projects that our population will reach 200,000 by July of this year. As a result, Cabarrus continues to be ranked 11th out of the 100 (population) counties in North Carolina. This growth in population brings additional demands on our public services— especially school capital and operational needs. 3. Cabarrus County Schools, Kannapolis City Schools and Rowan Cabarrus Community College continue to request additional funding to meet their growing capital, deferred maintenance and operating needs. In addition, the number of charter schools in the county continues to increase, which requires the County to redirect funds for Cabarrus students enrolled in local charter schools. 4. Although our North Carolina legislators continue to discuss increasing lottery funds to counties, they have not made a decision to do so, as of yet. Therefore, funding our school's capital needs continues to demand a large portion of local funding and, as such, creates a challenge for meeting all of the increasing current expense needs identified and requested by the respective boards of education. 5. Economic development efforts prove beneficial as several new businesses decided to locate in Cabarrus County and existing businesses made decisions to enlarge their facilities and /or increase their number of employees. Manny other businesses are considering our county as a location to relocate existing facilities or expand their companies. The Economic Development Commission is completing several Requests for Information packets each month. 6. While our State legislators made efforts to modify the sales tax collection and distribution process last year, the end result did not have a negative impact on Cabarrus revenues. However, discussions to revise the process are starting again, which could have a negative impact on our sales tax revenues in FY17 and beyond. Staff will continue to monitor and, along with our commissioners, advocate against any changes that negatively impact our county. 7. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) implemented its Community Paramedic program this fiscal year and it is very successful. The program is a partnership with CMC NorthEast, designed to reduce readmissions to the hospital through post - discharge follow -up care delivered by EMS paramedics. The short -term results indicate the program is already making a positive impact on the well -being of our citizens, EMS operations and volume of traffic in hospital emergency rooms. 8. Our Library and Active Living and Parks staff collaborated throughout the year to bring new programs to our youth and adults. In addition to positive feedback through public comments