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101 Mr. Caravati said he would support $25,000 instead of $50,000, contingent on them working out a program structure. Mr. Lynch said he would support $25,000, and said we should look to what we can do on the in-kind side. He said he agrees with Mr. Caravati. He said he thinks the current downtown Visitors Center site would be an ideal spot for them. Mr. Schilling said he would agree to fund them only if it can be taken out of existing funds for agency funding. He said he does not want to violate the guideline of not funding new programs. Dr. Brown said he would prefer to give them $50,000 but is okay with $25,000. Ms. Hamilton said she is not satisfied with not funding Mountainside. She noted that the County has agreed to provide funding pending receipt of a business plan. Mr. Robert Cox, Director of Social Services, said that there are 18 City residents at Mountainside out of 104 total residents that are subsidized. He said JABA says there are an additional 7 City residents that they provide a special rate to. He said the budget review team’s reasons for not funding are because the original funding commitment was temporary but JABA came back again for additional funding and the team asked for a current business plan but it was not provided. He said there are also a number of assisted living facilities in the area and it becomes a policy issue of if you subsidize one program does it suggest a commitment to other facilities. Mr. Schilling said he is awaiting additional information he requested from Gordon Walker, Executive Director of JABA. He said he asked Mr. Walker about all of the concerns of the review team in depth. He said Mr. Walker expressed concern that they were only allowed 20 to 30 minutes with the team and he thought there should be a greater amount of time allocated. Mr. Lynch said assisted living for adults is a state responsibility, and the question is to what extent do we take over the state’s responsibility. He also asked what one time funding means to us. He said we should either agree to not fund or to fund on an ongoing basis. Mr. Caravati said he asked the same questions of JABA. He said he is uneasy about not getting back the information. It was agreed that a decision would be made after the public hearing on funding for Mountainside. Mr. O’Connell noted that Council has reduced the CIP funding below the 3% guideline. Council agreed that it should be adjusted up to meet the 3% guideline. Homeowners Tax Relief Program Mr. O’Connell said the question is does Council like the concept of the tax relief program, and if so, what is the appropriate pool and what criteria should be used. Mr. Lynch said he is looking at reducing the tax rate by five cents, but this does not effectively target the population hit the most by rising assessments. He said the tax relief program is one mechanism to bring fairness. He said he would favor going beyond the proposal to set the assessment limit at $238,000 to cover 3,000 homeowners, and have it cover a wider group. He said he would take it to an assessment of $400,000 to cover 6,000 homeowners, with the income prescribed by VHDA of $62,000. Ms. Lisa Kelley, Deputy City Attorney, noted that Alexandria has chosen to reduce the income limit allowed by VHDA guidelines.