Budget highlights

The operating budget:

•nearly quadruples funding for the Office of Environmental Sustainability, with most of the funding increase slated to pay for storm water management efforts;

• boosts funding for Howard Community College by three percent to account for a significant rise in enrollment;

• gives Howard County Library a seven percent increase to pay for additional positions at the new Miller Branch;

• increases funding for the Community Service Partnership grants program, which helps fund county nonprofit agencies, by 16 percent; and,

• provides additional funding for the Howard County Tourism Council and the Economic Development Authority, slated to come from a state-approved 40 percent increase to the county's hotel tax.

The capital budget:

• funds the beginning phase of construction of a new elementary school in the northeast, where existing schools are overcrowded;

• uses state aid to pay for several school improvement and renovation projects;

• allows Howard Community College to finish construction of a health sciences building and start design and construction of a science, engineering and technology building;

• allocates money for continued construction of Blandair Regional Park, in Columbia, and Troy Regional Park, in Elkridge; and,

• starts funding a project that will move the Elkridge fire station to a larger location.