Remember the trouble the Orange County commissioners were having at finding just $5 million to eliminate from the county’s proposed $188 million operating budget for fiscal year 2008-09? It appears they have managed to do it, as this Herald-Sun story indicates. Next week the commissioners will take a final vote and if today’s scenario holds, the new county property tax rate will be 99.8 cents — a hike of 4.8 cents.

$1 million of the $5 million eliminated was for this, according to the story:

Delaying renovations for the Link Center county offices that would have opened more meeting space for the commissioners, for a savings of $1 million.

The News & Observer story on the budget plan is here. It contains more details about what comprises the $5 million that was eliminated. It includes:

— Teacher raises set at 3 percent (locally funded positions)
— School per-pupil funding from $61.6 million to $61.2 million
— Cost of living raise for county employees goes from 2.5 percent to 2.25 percent
— Exceptional performance pay goes from 3 percent to 2 percent
— Cut 14 proposed new positions (they also funded 14 new positions or more hours for part-time staffers)
— 3 month hiring freeze, with county manager able to override the freeze

And then there’s this item from the News & Observer story (emphasis is mine):

PARK DELAYS: The commissioners also decided to delay the opening of the West Ten Soccer Complex in Efland and the Northern Park in Cedar Grove, Coffey said. It’s not clear for how long. Parks director Lori Taft told the board a delay would actually help the long-term health of the turf at West Ten.

Now really, why was this so tough?