There’s a lot in the new $5 billion budget unveiled by Prince George’s County, Maryland, Executive Angela Alsobrooks, but what county residents won’t find is any tax hikes.
Instead, the budget proposal that’s roughly 10% bigger than last year’s relies on bigger increases in revenue to “invest in people,” as the county executive put it.
“While things are volatile now, everything that we’ve seen in government points to a broad and rapid economic recovery for our county and for our region,” Alsobrooks said. “Prince George’s County is incredibly resilient. The economic outlook for our county is bright as we see that new companies continue to come here, jobs continue to come here, and wagers will continue to rise.”
Education is getting a major boost — up more than 12% from last year to the tune of $2.63 billion.
“What we’re seeing is the largest investment that’s been made in recent memory,” Alsobrooks said. “You’ll see it in a number of ways. We have broken ground on nine new schools since last summer alone. You can expect to see that followed up by at least another six schools that we’ll break ground on.
“You’ll see those dollars also go toward pre-K education,” added Alsobrooks. “We’ve increased over time the number of pre-K seats that are available to students. We’re working also steadily to try to decrease class sizes. You’ll see funding in areas like psychological services for students, which we know we’re in dire need of right now. Teacher salaries, we’ve invested in teacher salaries so you’ll see many of those dollars will go directly into the classroom, but there will be some that also go into capital projects to fund facilities.”
The concerning spike in violent crime will also be addressed, with money for two new police academy classes as well as incentives to lure officers from other departments — especially ones who already live in the county. New forensics investigators will also be brought in, while the county also looks to spend money to hire new positions required under police reform laws enacted by Maryland’s legislature last year.
“The efforts we’re making in this budget to reduce violent crime are part of our broader strategy to keep our communities safe,” Alsobrooks said. “Dollars that we’ve allocated for our police department addresses many of the concerns that we have had.”
Boosting food distribution services, affordable housing and economic development were also highlighted in Alsobrooks’ budget announcement, as was the environment, where money will go toward flood mitigation and beautification projects. But for Alsobrooks, it’s not the sort of beautification she wants to see.
“We want our residents to understand that beautification does not just mean litter collection,” Alsobrooks noted.
She said just cleaning up a mess isn’t beautification.
“Beautification is planting trees, flowers, putting down mulch. So it’s my hope beautification in the long run will begin to change our residents’ hearts and minds around litter and illegal dumping.”
“We would like to see the millions of dollars that we spend on litter collection transformed soon into planting and other things that will make our community beautiful and that we will begin to see a culture shift around litter and that we won’t throw it down there in the first place.”
