County Budget

Dennis H. Parkinson, a top state budget officer, was named Monday tohead Anne Arundel's budget department.Parkinson's appointment comes less than three weeks after County Executive Robert R. Neall pushed a bill through the County Council increasing the allowable starting salary for top-ranking administrators hired from outside county government.The bill was designed specifically with Parkinson in mind. Neall has been wooing him ever since former county budget officer Marita Brown resigned to take a post in another county.

This is the season when local governments finalize their budgets for the next fiscal year, and the grousing about their penurious circumstances is in full swing. Some are even complaining that the state's revised budget and tax plan - signed into law by Gov.Martin O'Malleythis week - has put a serious crimp in their finances. In particular, they blame the state's decision to shift a portion of the cost of teacher retirement contributions to Baltimore City and the counties as ruinous to their own budgets.

Three public meetings will take place next week to solicit comments about the county budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.The meetings will be: Tuesday at Old Mill High School, Wednesday at Crofton Elementary, and Thursday at Annapolis High.All three sessions will begin at 7:30 p.m. Written testimony on the budget will be accepted until April 1.County Executive Robert R. Neall's budget is due to be submitted to the County Council May 1.The council will then have its own hearings and must approve a final budget by June 1.

While Carroll County's unemployment rate remains low and there are signs of modest economic recovery, the county's budget office said this week it could not present the Board of County Commissioners with a balanced operating budget for fiscal year 2013 without hard decisions by the commissioners. County Management and Budget Director Ted Zaleski told the commissioners March 21 that policy decisions will need to be made to balance this coming year's budget plan, as well as the longer-range FY 2013-18 plan.

Anne Arundel Executive Robert R. Neall won his battle to reduce the county budget yesterday by making a promise he doesn't expect to have to keep.The County Council unanimously approved Mr. Neall's revised fiscal 1992 budget, but only after the executive agreed in writing to restore $6.6 million in wage concessions if the county suffers no further cuts in state aid.That possibility, Mr. Neall said, is akin "to the sun rising in the west. I don't have any doubt as to what the state's going to do."

County government officials may ask the school system for help in cutting expenses to cope with a projected income gap that could reach $18 million, but Superintendent Michael E. Hickey says the public schools don't have much money to spare.Hickey said if a request for cuts in the 1990-1991 operating budget comes from County Executive-elect Charles I. Ecker, school officials will see if they can reduce non-personnel expenses and possibly put off filling non-teaching vacancies."It's not going to be possible to do very much because most of our budget is people, and those people are already hired.

With the holiday season underway, thoughts naturally turn to gifts -- the giving and receiving of them, that is.That spirit has certainly infected Howard County government, as a host of special interest groups and individuals came forward last week to thrust their wish lists before local elected officials. Not surprisingly, every body, it seems, wants something.Education advocates want more money for schools.Animal lovers want more for Animal Control.Environmentalists want more for solid waste management.

the most publicized local effect of the recession -- are, perhaps, the least likely to affect citizens.Only three Detention Center guards, six Health Department and three upper-management employees havelost their jobs -- which means no fewer teachers, cops on the beat, firefighters, librarians or road workers. Certainly those 11,000 county workers who have accepted pay cuts or furloughs will feel something. But if county budget officials are taken at their word, the average person on the street should notice little, if any, difference.

About 100 Anne Arundel County citizens gathered last night in Crownsville and asked County Executive Robert R. Neall to spare their favorite programs from the budget ax.At the first of four hearings Mr. Neall is conducting on the budget, he heard pleas to save several county programs, including a before- and after-school child care program. He also heard from people asking for money for new programs, such as an expansion of the crowded South Shore Elementary School and new athletic fields in Crofton.

Want to tell the top elected official in Howard County how to spend your tax money?Come to County Executive Charles I. Ecker's annual fall budget meeting at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the George Howard Building, which is in the county government complex in Ellicott City. Mr. Ecker is preparing the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.But his assistant stressed Friday that there is no money for new programs."The cupboard is bare," said Beverly Wilhide.This year she hopes to receive suggestions on how to cut government spending.

Recently, Frederick County Board of Commissioners President Blaine Young announced an exploratory committee for a run as Maryland's governor. Many in our county could not be more pleased. Mr. Young has a long history in politics, and his accomplishments in Frederick County are manifold. For instance, Frederick, like most counties, had a tremendous deficit. Much of our deficit was due to an overabundance of government positions and unnecessary or duplicate services. Salaries, benefits and retirement health care benefits constituted a tremendous amount of the shortfall.

Baltimore County will need to build flexibility in to its budget to prepare for teacher pension costs that could be passed on from the state to local governments, the chairman of the county's spending affordability committee said Tuesday. Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to shift some of those costs from the state is the major uncertain factor in the county's fiscal situation, said committee chairman Tom Quirk, a Catonsville Democrat and member of the County Council. It is not yet clear how much of the pension costs the county will have to absorb.

WESTMINSTER — The Board of County Commissioners this week opened its process for setting a budget for fiscal year 2013 with a review of the ups and downs of the local economy and their impact on the county. In a Jan. 24 presentation, Ted Zaleski, director of Management and Budget, said there are signs of an economic recovery, but it has been slow and not strong enough to have a significant positive impact on the budget. He told the commissioners that revenue projected for fiscal year 2012 is $2 million higher than originally budgeted, but property tax revenue, which is the largest contributor to the budget, is down 2 percent this year.

It is more than unfortunate that Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold continues to imply that funding our school system is like throwing money into a bottomless abyss with absolutely no return on investment ("School funding mandate hurts counties," Jan. 19). There are certainly flaws with the state's maintenance of effort law, but the bigger problem in our county is Mr. Leopold's ongoing disparaging comments and his desire to control our school system in a dictatorial fashion.

Is Harford County Executive David Craig's plan to give bonuses to local public employees, including teachers, sheriff's deputies and government staff, good public policy? There's room for disagreement on that question. Local government employees - including teachers and deputies - have been obliged to make sacrifices in recent years because of the rough economy and financial decisions made by the county's leadership. As a result of those decisions, Harford County government is rather sound and solvent compared to many other counties and to the state and federal governments.

Editor: I recently paid an Ocean City hotel a combined tax of 10.5 percent for an $89 room. A week later I paid a Connecticut hotel a state imposed tax of 15 percent on a $139 room. Twenty-two counties in Maryland charge a hotel tax. Harford does not. Yet here in Harford County our current delegation remains steadfastly opposed to introducing legislation that would bring a hotel room tax to Harford County. Once at the NAACP forum I spoke in favor of such a tax, even going so far as to state that I thought that any elected official who refused to seek revenue for the county in a manner which did not put a tax or financial burden on its citizens was, in my eyes, not doing their job. I feel even more strongly about this than I did then.

A dozen members of Lutherville's Boy Scout Troop No. 711 attended the annual Baltimore County Council budget hearing last night to learn about citizenship, and they did:Their contingent made up one-third of the audience in the Loch Raven High School auditorium.And with only 11 speakers signed up to comment on county spending by the scheduled 7 p.m. starting time, the annual meeting that a few years ago attracted overflow crowds of 1,200 or more impassioned people was over by 7: 35 p.m. -- the quickest anyone could remember.

When the Carroll County General Hospital board of directors agreed last week to pay the county an overdue bill for a $7 million loan, it did more than ease concern over the hospital's financial health.The decision prevented a widening of the county's $3 million budget hole and buoyed confidence in the hospital's ability to handle paymentson the more than $9.4 million in loans it took out from the county this fall."We view ourselves as very financially solid," Kevin Kelby, the hospital's vice president for finance, said Friday after the board announced it would remit the $563,300 payment it has owed the county since January.

Harford County Executive David R. Craig announced Thursday that officials had amassed a $32 million surplus, allowing him to buck a string of budget cuts in neighboring jurisdictions and recommend giving all county employees $1,250 bonuses. The gesture toward 7,000 teachers, sheriff deputies and all other county workers is in sharp contrast with other counties and Baltimore City, where services are being curtailed amid tough economic times. Craig attributed the budget surplus to careful fiscal management and an increase of income tax receipts from job growth in the county because of military base relocations and new businesses.

The Frederick County Board of Commissioners decided Tuesday to back away from a proposal to privatize many government services, but did not rule out making such a move in the future. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to discontinue study of a report prepared by a consultant who developed and implemented a similar plan near Atlanta. Calling the report a "lightning rod" for controversies and misconceptions, board president Blaine Young said, "We felt the best way to move forward at this point was to remove the report.