Politics & Government

'Doomsday' or Not for Howard County?

Local lawmakers react to the state budget.

County Council members told state representatives this week that Maryland's so-called “” concerns them and has put them in a holding pattern.

The state's budget, effective July 1, would create budget cuts at the county level across the state, including $9 million in Howard County.

However, state lawmakers attending the Howard County Chamber of Commerce's legislative wrap-up this week said that they anticipated a  of the General Assembly in the coming weeks.

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While a revised state budget may be coming, Howard County Del. James Malone said that counties are faced with doing double-duty in their own budget-planning.

“Every municipality and every county as we speak are doing two budgets—one without the BFRFA [budget reconciliation and financing act, or 'doomsday' cuts], and one with it,” Malone said at the chamber event.

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The Howard County Council has a June 1 deadline the fiscal year 2013 budget.

County Executive Ken Ulman submitted his capital budget request to the County Council at the end of March, and the council held a public hearing this week on it.

Ulman will submit his operating budget proposal by April 21, and the public can give feedback during a public hearing April 30.

"We will move forward with public hearings and continue on our process, but we’re mindful," County Councilwoman Jen Terassa said.

“We have to have our stuff done by June 1, so what we’re doing is making sure just in case ... that there’s some sort of contingency plan," County Councilman Greg Fox said.

Howard County is not in as dire a predicament as other jurisdictions could experience if the current state budget takes effect July 1, said Del. Gail Bates.

“Howard County is one of the counties that’s in fairly good shape compared to Baltimore City or Prince George’s County, who are very dependent on disparity grants," Bates said.

County Councilwoman Courtney Watson said she did not agree, and that the position the county was in was "worrisome."

“Essentially, it’s in the neighborhood of $8 to $9 million [in cuts], impacting some of our most revered institutions, including the community college, the library and the public school system," Watson said.

"That's something we are concerned about, particularly with the community college because we have 30,000 students and many of them are there for retraining, for employment, for workforce deveopment," Watson said. "The community college is not the place, I think, in this economy that needs to absorb those cuts. That is one of the most worrisome aspects of this."

One thing that isn't part of the so-called doomsday budget is shifting some teacher pension costs to the counties. . Counties objected to the shift in financial burden.

Fox said that , the shift of pension costs could be back on the table.

"On another note, right now, we don’t have the pension pushdowns, so that's good for the county," Fox said. 

If the responsibility for to the county from the state, it could cost Howard County $17 million over a period of several years. Also, if lawmakers reconvene for a special session, Maryland may move forward with an income tax increase to raise more revenue.

"From a Howard County perspective, if those tax increases go into effect, it will affect higher-income folks. It's going to hit Howard County more than any county in the state," said Fox. "There's going to be a giant sound of sucking money out of Howard County."

With its six-figure median income, .


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