A significant amount of the Prince George’s County budget is already accounted for by education and public safety; other initiatives and proposals have to battle it out for the rest.
What’s considered the rest just got smaller.
“Prince George’s County has less revenue than many communities around the region,” County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said when unveiling her budget in March. “This has been very difficult for us.”
On Thursday, Alsobrooks issued a statement saying there’s even less revenue than originally expected. A lot less.
Her office said income tax revenue projections are about $60 million short of what was expected when she unveiled her budget proposal almost two months ago. Now, Alsobrooks and the county council will have to figure out how to plug that gap.
Alsobrooks vowed to plug some of that hole with reserve funds, though she didn’t specify in her statement how much would be used. She’s still reviewing the rest of the budget to see where there might be further savings to be had.
In addition, the $60 million is still the projected revenue, and it’s possible more adjustments will be needed in the future. However, at that point, any further changes in income tax revenue are likely to be less significant than the original $60 million.
The new revenue projections caught the attention of the county council. During a budget hearing with school leaders, council member Jolene Ivey alluded to the county executive’s statement when she noted county finances were “worse than ever.”
It was also referenced repeatedly by council chair Tom Dernoga while other budgetary matters were discussed later in the hearing, and is likely to have a dampening effect on several proposals the county council has been approving this year.
Funding for some of those new programs looked like it was going to be tricky enough under the original budget proposal. But now, the council has less money than all of the proposed funding for county agencies that deal with health and human services.
“We have to make choices with the revenues that we have,” Alsobrooks said back in March.
Those choices just got harder.
