WASHINGTON — The Montgomery County Council has given its approval to a $5 billion budget for FY2016. The council added $18.1 million for items not included in County Executive Ike Leggett’s FY16 budget proposal.
Thursday’s vote is officially a “tentative” agreement, but it’s expected there won’t be changes next Thursday, May 21, when the budget is formally adopted by the nine-member council.
“We did not increase property taxes, and we’re going to continue to provide a government that works for our constituents,” Council President George Leventhal says.
The budget includes a $692 tax credit for homeowners, puts the property tax rate at the county’s charter limit and keeps the fuel-energy tax first introduced by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett during the depths of the recession. At that time, Leggett said the tax would sunset by FY 2012. That didn’t happen. And a proposal to cut the energy tax rate failed.
Council member Nancy Floreen was that sole “no” vote on the budget adopted by the county council. In a video statement on the budget, Floreen said doing business in Montgomery County has to be made more attractive. Floreen says keeping the tax is one of the things that hinder efforts to attract businesses.
“If we don’t make it easy for them, if we don’t reduce some of the tax burden they’re looking at right now, they’re not going to come here–they’re not going to stay here,” Floreen says.
Leggett told the council members he didn’t want to see additional items on the FY16 operating budget, but council member Craig Rice said there were some items that “keep the momentum going” on growing opportunities in the county and simply had to get funding.
One example, Rice says, is the addition of $7 million for Montgomery College. Rice calls the community college a “linchpin when it comes to putting people back to work, when it comes to making sure that people can elevate themselves from lower-wage jobs to some stability.”
Nearly half of the county’s budget will go to the county’s public schools. MCPS will get $2.3 billion , which county council officials say funds 97.6 percent of the schools’ budget request.
The police department will get $271 million, including funding for a program that will pilot the use of police body-cameras for 100 officers.
Details on the county budget can be found at the county council website.
