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5 <br /> The majority of Council tentatively agreed to provide the employee parking <br />subsidy. <br /> <br /> Councilors tentatively agreed to provide $20,000 for the fatherhood initiative. <br /> <br /> Mr. O’Connell said that options for a 2 cent tax rate reduction include cutting the <br />schools, increasing the cigarette tax, and reducing Council reserve. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said he agrees with increasing the cigarette tax. <br /> <br /> Mr. Norris said our teachers salary increase is pegged to the County’s rate. <br /> <br /> Mr. O’Connell said he is not sure the County Schools want to decrease their <br />teacher salaries even if their budget is decreased. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said he agrees with Mr. Norris and he hopes the City Schools will keep <br />their increase the same as the County’s. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said he would favor leaving funding for the One Stop Center in reserve <br />and provide the funding if they can justify it. He said he would like not to reduce the <br />funding for the Schools. <br /> <br /> Ms. Beauregard said that with the Council reserve reduced as proposed, minus the <br />reserve for the One Stop Center, $14,488 remains. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said he thinks we can reduce the tax rate by 2 cents fairly easily by <br />reducing City employee salary increases to 3% and taking $500,000 out of the CIP. He <br />said we should spend more time working with the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue <br />Squad (CARS) to get the cost for the EMS proposal down. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said he thinks we are moving too fast and too expensively regarding <br />EMS. He said that a better plan could emerge by working with CARS. <br /> <br /> Mr. Norris suggested putting the money in the budget and working with CARS on <br />an integrated system. <br /> <br /> Mr. Norris asked if there is wiggle room in the CIP above what we statutorily <br />have to provide. <br /> <br /> Ms. Beauregard said we cannot go below 3% of the General Fund budget. She <br />said another $550,000 could be cut from the CIP and maintain the 3% requirement. <br /> <br /> Mr. Norris agreed that the CIP could be reduced, and said he thinks the Strategic <br />Investment funding could be lowered. <br /> <br /> Mr. O’Connell said that is funded with one time surplus money. He said if we <br />reduce projects in the CIP funding has to be cut every year. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said an example of the use of the Strategic Investment funds would be <br />the Martha Jefferson Hospital relocation. He said we may want to invest public money in <br />that project. He said he would like to see us keep most of this funding. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch disagreed about using the funds for the Martha Jefferson project. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said we may want to be a partner in their plan. <br /> <br /> Ms. Hamilton said she would like to see a chuck of this money, perhaps $500,000, <br />go into improving our sewer system. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said he would support that. <br /> <br /> <br />