ROCKVILLE, Md. — Like a homeowner faced with rising household expenses after a pay cut, Montgomery County officials are trying to find items they can trim in order to bring the current budget in line.
But just as families may disagree on what’s a must-have versus what can be eliminated, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and Council President George Leventhal disagree over some of the proposed budget cuts in the county executive’s $51 million cost-cutting plan.
Leventhal said he was surprised and disappointed to see proposed cuts for personal care assistants who aid residents with disabilities.
“We’re asking folks to work for just pennies above what any one of us would consider a livable wage,” Leventhal said of the aides.
The council president also objected to a proposed cut of $500,000 to a program that finds housing for homeless veterans.
“I truly don’t feel that eliminating housing vouchers for homeless veterans is consistent with our community’s values,” Leventhal told reporters at a weekly briefing.
Leventhal contends that the county’s budget situation, while serious, is not as dire as Leggett has suggested. Instead of finding savings by cutting services and the pay of people earning already low wages, Leventhal says the county should examine the salaries of the county’s top-tier employees.
“We’re compensating people very, very generously, and I’m talking about hundreds of senior and managerial positions. That’s real money,” he says.
Leventhal says recent hires could have been brought in with salaries 7 percent to 10 percent lower than offered. Leventhal didn’t specify which hires.
But Patrick Lacefield, spokesman for County Executive Ike Leggett, said Leggett’s already doing exactly what Leventhal suggests. Lacefield notes that Rob Green, hired as the new director of correction and rehabilitation, and Scott Goldstein, appointed as the new fire chief, were both hired at salaries lower than their predecessors.
“Actually we hired Rob Green at 13 percent less than (Arthur) Wallenstein and Goldstein at about 6 percent less than Steve Lohr. In other words, we are already doing what he says we should,” Lacefield said in an email to WTOP.
Lacefield also took issue with Leventhal’s contention that the financial outlook for fiscal year 2016 is not the county’s biggest problem.
Lacefield says a recent Supreme Court case related to how states tax out-of-state earnings will cost Montgomery County millions now and in future years. The county is also under pressure to maintain its credit rating by demonstrating to Wall Street that county reserves are at optimum levels.
Lacefield wrote in his email “Our reserve target is still below the 10 percent we promised Wall Street.”
Several County Council committees are meeting to reconcile Leggett’s spending cuts with the council’s priorities. Final action on the budget is expected before the council goes into its August recess. The last council meeting is scheduled for July 28.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
