The St. Mary’s County Commissioners have finalized deliberations of the Fiscal year 2013 budget which takes effect July 1. The $211.6 million budget contains no property or income tax rate increases and is virtually the same as what was presented at the budget public hearing on May 1. The deliberations concluded Monday after the commissioners made decisions on several items. They will vote on the budget officially at their May 29 meeting.
Several effects of the just completed Maryland General Assembly special session were included in the budget. The commissioners had set aside $4.1 million to cover a partial shift in teacher pension costs to the county. In the end the net effect for the coming fiscal year will only be $2,485,687, so the remainder will be shifted to an account that will cover future teacher retiree health care costs.
The commissioners did not include any additional income tax revenue to reflect the increased tax rate for Marylanders with incomes of more than $100,000. Chief Financial Officer Elaine Kramer said the timing and amount of that expected income tax revenue increase was difficult to determine at this time.
The commissioners, on a 3-2 vote, rejected a motion by Commissioner Todd Morgan (R: 4th) to restore funding for non-county agencies to current levels: /news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/27726
The majority of the commissioners, on a 3-2 vote, rejected Morgan’s attempt to provide funding for sidewalks on Buck Hewitt Road and speed humps on Wildewood Parkway. Costs for those two projects would have been $471,669 and $85,000. “I would prefer to have the information (on the two projects) vetted in a more transparent and open process,” Commissioner Cynthia Jones (R” 1st) said. Morgan raised the two issues for the first time at the May 14 budget work session.
An idea broached by Commissioner Daniel Morris (R: 2nd) for the first time at the May 21 session was rejected on a 4-1 vote. Morris said the sheriff’s department was getting more deputies. He said he didn’t make sense for there to be more arrests and not giver the state’s attorney the tools to prosecute. Morris asked that $37,498 be added to the budget to bring that office up for FY 2011 funding levels.
Morris had suggested paying for the increase in the state’s attorney office funding by eliminating a “Baltimore lawyer” retained by the sheriff’s office for litigation issues. Morris said the Maryland Attorney General is the chief legal officer for sheriff’s offices and the county attorney could handle whatever else needed to be done. But County Attorney George Sparling said he had no authority to represent the sheriff and the Maryland Attorney General was just a legal advisor to the sheriff.
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