The Orange County Board of Commissioners took another step toward issuing the largest bond in county history Tuesday night.

The board unanimously approved a motion to move forward with a bond that would be worth $125 million. The commissioners decided that $120 million of the bond will go toward repairing school buildings in the county and $5 million will go to affordable housing. When the bond was originally discussed, all of the money was expected to go to the schools. But, due to public outcry for funding for affordable housing, some commissioners changed their mind, including Chair Earl McKee.

“I’m one of the folks that originally thought, ‘schools only,’ because the needs of the schools were so great,” he says. “But I think that, possibly along with some other commissioners, we realized that schools and affordable housing do go together.

“They actually compliment one another.”

Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA member Jill Simon told the board the issues of affordable housing and the school repairs are interrelated.

“I also want to add that at Frank Porter Graham there are almost 50 percent of families who are in economically fragile situations,” she says. “And so that’s a really good example of how I am not asking for the money for the schools to be against money for housing.

“Our families and buildings need help in both situations.”

Commissioner Barry Jacobs said he thought it was important to include both issues in the bond.

“I would like to suggest that we think of this bond package as the Goldilocks bond,” he says, “and that we’re trying to get it to be just right. I think it’s important that we get it to be just right. And I think that it’s important that it be as inclusive as we can possibly make it.”

Jacobs, along with commissioners Penny Rich and Mark Dorosin, pushed to raise the total of the bond to $130 million in order to give another $5 million to affordable housing, but lost the vote. Dorosin said he thinks $10 million should be committed to see the affordable housing progress the commissioners want.

“I think it’s critical both politically and legislatively to have that money in the bond,” he says.

To go along with the bond, the board also unanimously approved a change in the budget allocation for affordable housing and school repair. The board agreed to commit at least $1 million out of the budget each year for the next five years to both issues.

The board will have to formally introduce the bond to the public before April. Once the bond is introduced, the commissioners must have a separate meeting to take public comment before they can vote on whether to put the bond on the ballot.

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