Million Budget

After two years of spending cuts and $50 million in new taxes, Baltimore still faces an $81 million gap in its $1.2 billion budget, finance officials told the City Council on Thursday. City budget chief Andrew W. Kleine said the shortfall was equal to the cost of keeping more than 1,000 police officers or 1,200 firefighters on duty, an illustration that prompted an outcry from council members still bitter from the rancorous deliberations that led to the current budget. "We went through this last year," Councilman James B. Kraft said.

Sixth-graders from West Middle School in Carroll County scoured the Bear Branch stream one recent morning in search of aquatic life in the dead of winter. Nathan Grella said the contents of his bucket did not appear promising. "We just got leaves and rocks," said the 12-year-old, one of 57 youngsters spending the week at Outdoor School at Hashawha Environmental Center in Westminster. Closer inspection, however, showed the leaves and rocks were indeed harboring life, information the students will use to size up the stream's health.

The Annapolis city council has approved Mayor Joshua J. Cohen's $75.1 million operating budget, which furloughs police and fire personnel and raises fees for such city services as water use and recreation centers. The spending plan is 13 percent below the $86.5 million operating budget for the current fiscal year, a reduction that city officials said might be the largest percentage decrease statewide this year. "I applaud the city council, the department heads and the rest of the city's work force as well as the public for their contributions to this budget," Cohen said.

State highway crews have an answer to whatever winter brings our way this year: a snow-chewing, salt-spewing monster truck capable of plowing two full lanes at once. The truck is the latest weapon in the 2,400-vehicle arsenal of the State Highway Administration, the agency charged with clearing as much blacktop and concrete as the equivalent of seven round trips to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Officials showed off an array of flake-fighting equipment Monday at its annual show-and-tell at SHA's Statewide Operations Center in Hanover.

The Howard County school board voted 6-1 Tuesday morning to approve a $675.1 million operating budget for fiscal year 2011. The lone vote of dissent came from board member Allen Dyer, who opposed the board spending money to provide transportation to parochial school students. Instead, Dyer wanted the board to spend $537,000 to offer foreign language at all elementary schools systemwide. "I think that as a board member I am against transportation to nonpublic schools being part of our budget," Dyer said after the meeting.

From The Aegis dated Feb. 19, 1987: The Harford County public school system 25 years ago was asking for a $10.1 million (11.8 percent) increase in funding from the year before, including a 6 percent across-the-board pay raise for its 3,000 employees. The budget would also add 125 new positions to the school system, including 79 new teachers. The budget request for fiscal 1988 far surpassed other budgets, including an additional $2.7 million provided by the previous county executive and the $4 million from a year earlier.

Harford County Council members unanimously approved yesterday the county's proposed $237.3 million budget for fiscal 1995.The seven-member council voted about 1:40 a.m.The budget includes a $175 million operating budget -- about 10 percent higher than last year's of $160 million -- and $62 million for the highway, water and sewer, and solid waste budgets.The tax rate remains unchanged at $2.73 in most of the county. In the three municipalities of Aberdeen, Bel Air and Havre de Grace it will stay at $2.34.

Carroll County will have about $10 million more to spend in the next fiscal year, which means taxes won't increase, employees will get raises and schools will be built.County officials expect an 8.9 percent increase in revenues for fiscal 1994, which begins July 1, compared with the current year.The commissioners released their proposed $130 million budget for the next fiscal year during a meeting yesterday with employees and the media at the County Office Building."It is the first budget that represents a step toward the turnaround," budget director Steven D. Powell said.

Harford County Public Works officials defended their 1995 budget requests to the County Council Thursday, as council President Jeffrey D. Wilson reiterated a request for the county to develop a cost-accounting system so that it can more closely monitor departmental spending.At $38.9 million, the proposed Department of Public Works (DPW) operating budget is second in size only to that of the Department of Education, which has been allotted $96.4 million.The DPW budget includes $14.7 million for highways, $14 million for the water and sewer division, and $9.1 million for the solid waste division.

The Howard County Board of Education is hoping that the County Council will approve an adjusted 2010 fiscal operating budget that trims $7.3 million from its original $664 million budget. In addition, the board wants council members to add $4.7 million to the $68.8 million capital budget approved by County Executive Ken Ulman. The board originally sought to add $10.7 million of the $26.2 million that Ulman had cut. Board members unanimously approved both budgets during Tuesday's board meeting.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake would permanently close three fire companies and could shut several recreation centers in an effort to close a $48 million gap in the city's $3 billion operating budget, according to city officials who have been briefed on the spending proposal. The budget, which Rawlings-Blake will unveil at Wednesday's spending board meeting, would trim costs by combining the 911 and 311 call centers and increasing the rates paid by city employees for some health plans, officials said.

From The Aegis dated Feb. 19, 1987: The Harford County public school system 25 years ago was asking for a $10.1 million (11.8 percent) increase in funding from the year before, including a 6 percent across-the-board pay raise for its 3,000 employees. The budget would also add 125 new positions to the school system, including 79 new teachers. The budget request for fiscal 1988 far surpassed other budgets, including an additional $2.7 million provided by the previous county executive and the $4 million from a year earlier.

In its budget proposal for the next fiscal year, the Anne Arundel County school system has recommended allotting $3.5 million to fund the expansion of its two charter schools. That includes adding an 11th grade in August at Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School in Hanover. Chesapeake Science Point officials say the grade will likely be composed solely of the school's 10th-grade class, which was added last fall. "We're not going to add a big 11th grade; as a matter of fact, we prefer not to bring in outside students.

The Anne Arundel Board of Education approved feasibility studies for six elementary schools Wednesday, prompting elation from teachers, parents and students eager to see their facilities get what they believe are much-needed makeovers. Lothian and Rolling Knolls elementary schools are to be rebuilt. West Annapolis and Benfield elementary schools are slated for modernization, including mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades, as well as moving interior walls. Crofton and Mills-Parole elementaries are to be revitalized, work that usually includes electrical, plumbing, technology and roofing upgrades.

Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen plans to raise $2 million through a property tax increase, paired with a $2.8 million package of spending cuts — including a hiring freeze and cuts to nearly all city departments — to balance his proposed $86.2 million budget for next fiscal year. The plans announced Wednesday were the result of an agreement between Cohen and a majority of the city council, many of whose members criticized his budget proposal when it was introduced in March. Initially, the plan included a 7.6 percent spending increase over the previous year and would not have changed the property tax rate.

The Anne Arundel County Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposed 3-cent property tax increase designed to help balance the county's budget, following a recent meeting at which a divided council slashed county spending by more than $19 million. Despite spending cuts to the community college and the police vehicle fleet, and a delay of construction funding for Severna Park High School, more cuts could be on the horizon. To balance County Executive John R. Leopold's proposed $1.2 billion budget for the next fiscal year, the council could increase the property tax, make more cuts, or approve a combination of the two options.

With a new executive director taking over for the first time in more than three decades, now, traditionally, would be the time to consider new directions that Catholic Charities might take. But Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, who chairs the board that oversees the organization, is planning to take an "if it ain't broke ..." approach as William J. McCarthy Jr., former Sun Trust Bank Greater Baltimore president, succeeds Harold A. "Hal" Smith as executive director. "I don't think that there's a Catholic Charities program throughout the country to match ours," says O'Brien, spiritual leader of the area's 500,000 Catholics.

From the Maryland Politics blog: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will slash $65 million from the city's $1.2 billion budget through "tough but targeted cuts" but not raise taxes in the coming fiscal year, according to a briefing slated to be presented to the city's spending board Wednesday. Under the plan library hours would be reduced, some after school programs eliminated and funding for animal services would be cut. Residents would be forced to pay for bulk trash pickups and hours would be cut back at the city's 311 call center.

Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen introduced to the city council Monday night a $86.2 million operating budget proposal that seeks to raise several fees for city residents, in an effort to drastically increase the city's heavily depleted reserves. The proposal is a 7.6 percent increase over last year's budget and allows the city to maintain its property tax rate and will result in a projected $2 million surplus. The mayor proposed raising fees for water, sewer and storm-water management, as well as public bus fares by as much as 50 percent.