May 24, 2009|By Larry Carson | Larry Carson,larry.carson@baltsun.com
Last year, as the Howard County Council completed work on the fiscal 2009 budget, Councilwoman Courtney Watson gave budget director Raymond S. Wacks a four-leaf clover to ward off recessionary revenue declines. It didn't work, she pointed out Wednesday after voting on this year's crop of 25 budget bills and resolutions.
The council approved a $1.4 billion operating budget and $392 million in capital expenses for the year that starts July 1. The operating budget cuts general fund spending 4 percent, furloughs about 1,800 county workers, denies them a cost-of-living pay raise and lays off nine people. It doesn't raise tax rates, though property tax bills will rise slightly because of assessment increases delayed from earlier years.
Wacks is worried that next year's revenues could be worse, though, mainly because even if the economy begins to recover, income tax collections usually lag behind, he has said.
So this year, Watson gave Wacks a horseshoe purportedly used by Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra, the first filly to win the horse race in 85 years. Wacks noted the used shoe, which was really scrounged from a western county farm, came complete with bent nails.
The council changed virtually nothing in County Executive Ken Ulman's third budget. Although it was clearly his most frugal, the executive said he's forging ahead with his progressive initiatives on the environment and health care.
To criticism that he should have spent less and saved more in his first two years, he had a clear answer.
"We did exactly what we should have been doing," he said after the council's votes. "We invested in one-time purchases. We're doing the fiscally prudent thing."
He was referring to the $3 million worth of blue, wheeled recycling bins the county bought last fall for every homeowner, the hybrid transit buses and county fleet hybrid vehicles, his insistence that new buildings be more environmentally friendly, and the Healthy Howard health access plan, which his administration is spending $1 million on over two years.
He also noted that spending in his general fund, which is the locally financed portion of the budget, will experience the greatest percentage decline in 17 years.
Still, though there seemed little to fight about, Ulman did not get a unanimous vote.
Fulton Republican Greg Fox found plenty to dislike and voted against four of the measures.
"We had the opportunity to plan accordingly when we had our surpluses two years ago rather than spend them on new programs. As I looked at the situation in total, I just could not support the budget," he said at the voting session at school board headquarters.
Fox's main peeve was putting another $500,000 into Healthy Howard, the innovative health care access program for limited-income, uninsured county residents. He wanted to cut the entire amount, he said, but tried to compromise with a $250,000 cut. He couldn't attract a second vote.
His unsuccessful fight to persuade other members to go along was the only public council dispute.
Jen Terrasa, a King's Contrivance Democrat, said she felt "it would be fiscally irresponsible to pull funding or cut the program. That would doom it to failure," she said. "I think it's an amazing program that's saving lives," she said.
Calvin Ball, an east Columbia Democrat, agreed. "We need to move forward with innovative, exciting programs," he said.
Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, a west Columbia Democrat, pointed out that the council committed to a trial period on the health program last year, which she recognized would go through two budget years.
"I don't want to substitute my judgment on this program for those who put the program together," she said.
Watson said she, too, felt more time was needed for evaluation.
Fox also criticized Ulman's two-officer police security detail, saying the men should be out protecting ordinary citizens instead of the executive. Ulman has added 54 police officers to the county force over two years, and has said he wants about 50 more. The executive refused to discuss security.
Fox also objected to the lack of a contribution to the future health care costs for retirees, a $477 million obligation that is growing, and to the extra expense of building high-quality, state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly buildings when some existing structures need repairs.
Wacks has said the county, like many others across the country, just couldn't afford the retiree payment scheduled this year. That money went to help balance the budget.
Despite all that, Watson called the budget review "the most collaborative" effort she's seen in three years, and Calvin Ball, an east Columbia Democrat, said members "disagreed respectfully and remained mostly civil.
