Leonardtown, MD — The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County have made a significant dent in an $8 million budget shortfall by paring the initial requests of the school board and the sheriff. The cuts came at a March 15 budget work session.
The commissioners cut $5 million from the school board request, leaving proposed funding at the state required “Maintenance of Effort,” or an approximate $2 million increase over last year’s county funding of $93.9 million. The budget submitted by the school board includes a $4 million “placeholder” to cover ongoing negotiations with two of the system’s three unions (teachers and support staff).
During the presentation by School Superintendent Scott Smith, Commissioner John O’Connor [R – District 3] was critical of the school system giving employees two steps last year and one this coming July. O’Connor alleged the commissioners were not aware of the third step.
Commissioner Mike Hewitt [R- 2nd District], a former school board member, noted the commissioners had committed $5 million over Maintenance of Effort last year and now they were coming back for $5 million more. “Ten million in two years is a lot of money,” Hewitt said.
Smith responded, “I can’t imagine a better way of spending it than putting it in the pockets of the teachers and support staff.”
If the commissioners hold up the initial decision when they finalize the proposed budget March 22, it can guarantee a large number of those teachers and support staff coming out to speak at the budget public hearing April 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Chopticon High School.
Two weeks ago the commissioners asked the sheriff to relook at his request for a $3.6 million increase. The sheriff made that request before the release of a compensation study that called for spending $1.7 million to make the entry level salaries more competitive and curb the turnover and difficulty in hiring new personnel.
In revising the budget Sheriff Tim Cameron came in with a request for a $1.3 million increase that included the $1.7 million but removed some of the approved and unfilled hires and revised the request for new personnel. He did include five new hires and 33 replacement vehicles.
O’Connor during the discussion urged the commissioners to pull monies for the new vehicles out of the budget until a decision was made about whether to lease the vehicles instead of purchasing them. He also urged using the vehicles purchased for the deputies that are not being hired to cover part of the new vehicle request.
Those comments caused Commissioner Todd Morgan [R- District 4] to charge O’Connor with micromanaging the sheriff’s budget. He said regarding what was right or wrong for the sheriff to do, “I am not smart enough (to know).”
O’Connor’s comments drew a strong rebuke from Assistant Sheriff Major John Horne (shown above). He angrily called O’Connor’s comments “absolutely ridiculous,” adding “You don’t know anything about law enforcement Commissioner O’Connor.”
O’Connor retorted to Major Horne, “You are not helping your cause.”
Sheriff Cameron attempted to diffuse the testy situation by saying, “There is great frustration at budget time.”
In the end, at Morgan’s insistence, the commissioners increased the sheriff’s budget by $1.5 million over the current year and gave him the flexibility to work out how to use it.
This year for the first time county agencies which deal with the subject matter of the various nonprofits asking the county for funding are reviewing those requests and making reports. Those reports will be discussed at the March 22 budget work session at 1:30 p.m. Later in that session the commissioners will finalize the recommended budget for public hearing.
Based on a tentative decision at the March 15 session, there will be at least two tax increases in the budget – the fire and rescue taxes to cover increased costs of the Length of Service Awards Program for members of the volunteer fire and rescue squads, and an increase in the solid waste fee to cover a deficit in that department’s operations. The two fee increases are expected to average a total of $46 per year per taxpayer.
Commissioner Hewitt said he still hasn’t given up on his wish to eliminate the county’s energy tax. Those types of decisions affecting the tax rate will be made on March 22 but could be revised after the April 19 public hearing and before the commissioners eventually set the tax rates before June 1 for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Contact Dick Myers at dick.myers@thebaynet.com