Spending Plan

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. is expected to present a budget Monday that calls for pay raises for all county employees and maintains government services without raising taxes. The proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July is also expected to include contentious changes to employees' retirement benefits that are designed to cut costs. While not discussing specifics, Smith said yesterday that he hoped to present to the County Council "a well-balanced budget, meeting the community's needs and maintaining fiscal responsibility."

In WashingtonClinton offers new protections for elderlyThe greatest threat older Americans face is not a gun-wielding thug but "a telemarketer armed with a deceptive rap," President Clinton said yesterday. He proposed legislation to shut down telephone scams aimed at the elderly.The president said the sharply falling crime rate is a godsend to older people who once fearfully locked themselves into their homes, but new protection is needed for nursing home residents who "cannot lock the door against abuse and neglect by the people paid to care for them."

Carroll school officials made a plea to the county commissioners yesterday for an additional $2.4 million to make up a shortfall in their proposed budget for fiscal 2000.The schools' proposed $173 million spending plan includes 32 new teaching positions to reduce class sizes and money to pay for planning time for elementary school teachers. "This budget reflects a real sense of urgency to our staffing needs," Superintendent William H. Hyde told the commissioners.The board's spending plan calls for an 8.7 percent increase over this year's $159 million budget.

The Baltimore County Council was told last night to keep its hands off funds that Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger plans to spend next year on schools but to slash the $12 million budgeted to buy and demolish the Tall Trees apartment complex in Essex.About 200 people attended a public hearing on Ruppersberger's proposed $1.7 billion budget at Loch Raven High School. More than half of the 96 people who signed up to speak stressed the need for increased school spending.Ruppersberger's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 calls for $74 million in spending increases and pumps millions into school repairs, community centers and fire and police stations.

Trying to build support for one of his key initiatives, Gov. Parris N. Glendening sent legislators a $153 million spending package yesterday that is contingent on the General Assembly passing his proposed increase in the tobacco tax.The spending plan includes $3.8 million to help deal with systemic failures in Baltimore's court system, $1.8 million to finish planning for the renovation of the Hippodrome Theater and other projects dear to the hearts of...

ROCKVILLE -- The Montgomery County Council, often accused of being dominated by tax-and-spend liberals, did a little less of both in approving a $2.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2000.The council gave County Executive Douglas Duncan almost all the money he asked for in March, but trimmed $2.6 million from his proposed spending plan. It also passed along to taxpayers a series of small cuts totaling $7 million in the first year, and increasing to $24 million after three years.The fiscal spending plan is 7 percent above the current year, but 1 percent below a spending cap the council set last month.

The Carroll County Board of Education last night unanimously adopted a $173 million operating budget that includes 32 new teaching positions to reduce class sizes and funds for planning time for elementary school teachers.Superintendent William H. Hyde added 22 of the positions to his 1999-2000 spending plan before sending the amended budget to the board for a vote."We have absolutely got to address the issue of overload on our staff," Hyde told the board. "I believe this is a reasonable request, a request you could certainly defend to the public and defend to the [county]

After months of meetings and crunching numbers, the Crofton Civic Association board has approved a revised budget for this year and a budget for the 2001 fiscal year.Monday night, board members approved a $925,000 budget for this fiscal year and a $917,000 spending plan for fiscal 2001. They held the tax rate at 27 cents per $100 valuation.Then they debated the best way to explain budget complexities -- including increased spending -- to their constituents.Residents have been used to seeing an accounting of expenditures, usually totaling about $600,000.

Flush with extra money, Baltimore County's proposed $1.6 billion spending plan gives schools all they requested, pumps record amounts of cash into construction projects and hands county workers their first cost-of-living pay raise in four years.The election-year budget proposal, outlined by County Executive A. Dutch Ruppersberger yesterday, offers no property tax cuts. Instead, it plows increased tax revenues and state aid not only into schools but also into older neighborhoods and several long-delayed projects, including a fire academy in Sparrows Point and a 1,680-bed jail.

For the first time in three years, Crofton property owners voted last night to increase spending in their special community benefits district, approving a $32,536 increase in the annual budget.By a vote of 142-29, the residents approved a $600,849 spending plan for the coming fiscal year that keeps the tax rate at 26 cents per $100 of assessed value and includes a 2.5 percent cost of living raise for Crofton's 14 employees.The raise was proposed last night and approved."This is the largest community meeting that Crofton has ever had," said Edwin F. Dosek, president of the Crofton Civic Association board of directors.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has proposed borrowing $15 million, eliminating 17 vacant positions and scaling back a street-cleaning contract to compensate for a $26.5 million reduction in state aid. A city budget adopted by the Board of Estimates Wednesday leaves in place service cuts announced earlier by the mayor, such as shortening pool hours and closing child care and recreation centers. Dixon revised her spending plan after the General Assembly balanced the state budget partly by keeping $160 million in highway money that was intended to be distributed to local governments.

The Baltimore County school board unanimously approved last night a $1.32 billion operating budget proposal that includes raises for teachers for the next fiscal year. The board's vote followed public expressions of support for the budget proposed by Superintendent Joe A. Hairston last month. The county PTA council, employee unions and area advisory council leadership spoke in favor of the spending plan, with several indicating they would push for it with county officials. "This will be the most difficult budget that the county executive has prepared during his term," said Donald I. Mohler III, a spokesman for County Executive James T. Smith Jr., alluding to the difficult economic times the country is facing.

The Baltimore County school board was encouraged to maintain the pay raises in the proposed operating budget for the 2010 fiscal year during a public hearing last night. About 50 people attended the hearing, which took place at Ridge Ruxton School in Towson. Among the 20 or so who addressed the board, a theme emerged: Even in tough economic times, employees deserve - and need - a salary increase, which would also help keep teachers in the county instead of seeking higher pay elsewhere.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama's call for speedy adoption of a massive spending plan to "jolt" the economy will prove an early test of two major promises: that he will work in a bipartisan style with a skeptical Republican Party, and that he will purge the federal budget of wasteful projects. Even conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill predict that, in the end, a substantial stimulus package will pass. Job losses and a deepening recession demand a quick infusion of money, they say. But Republicans in the Senate, even with their ranks diminished, still possess leverage to tailor a package that fits certain specifications.

With the auto industry crippled by the economic downturn, Maryland may need to cut $2.5 billion from the transportation budget for highways, transit and other projects - on top of $1.1 billion in recent reductions, a top fiscal analyst warned state lawmakers yesterday. The additional cuts to the $9.4 billion, six-year transportation spending plan are needed because of a decline in taxes and fees brought on by slower car sales and lower gas consumption, said Warren G. Deschenaux, the chief budget analyst from the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services.

Upgrades to the MARC system will take longer. Projects to get highways ready for military base expansions will be pushed back. Improvements along U.S. 29 in Howard County will be delayed. These are among the $1.1 billion in hard choices Maryland officials announced yesterday as they cut back transportation spending plans over the next six years to account for drops in state revenues related to high gas prices and a slowing economy. "With gas up to $4 a gallon from $2 a gallon, everybody started driving less," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, saying revenues from gasoline taxes have fallen off as a result.

The Carroll County commissioners adopted yesterday a $353 million operating budget for the 2009 fiscal year, about $25 million more than the current year's spending plan. The vote marked the culmination of a process that must be completed by the end of the month, said Ted Zaleski, director of management and budget. "It went well, given the circumstances," Zaleski said. "We knew we were facing a difficult situation, both in terms of having the change in the economy, the change in the housing market.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. is expected to present a budget today to county lawmakers that leaves them little to trim. Cost-of-living pay raises for county workers and anything else considered not essential to the daily functions of local government have already been left out of the spending plan, according to officials familiar with the final draft. The executive's budget is not expected to require a property tax increase or to raise fees. Smith's budget is expected to come within a few hundred dollars of the county Spending Affordability Committee's recommended $1.547 billion general fund budget for the 2009 fiscal year, which begins in July.

The General Assembly passed Maryland's $31.2 billion budget yesterday, capping a hectic day of debates and votes as lawmakers sought to put the finishing touches on a crush of legislation before they adjourn tomorrow. Although much of the day was taken up with debate over the repeal of the computer services tax, both legislative chambers sent bills to Gov. Martin O'Malley for his signature, including high-profile measures that would protect rural shoreline from further development and strengthen penalties against manufacturers of toys and other products containing lead.

The Carroll County school board unanimously approved last night a nearly $330 million operating budget for the 2009 fiscal year. The board approved the budget after a second public hearing at Westminster High School, adding several positions for testing coordinators at each high school and eliminating some school-based accountant positions to allow for additional teachers to reduce high school class sizes. With those changes, the spending plan contains about $21 million more than the current operating budget and takes into account an estimated $5 million shortfall expected as a result of the special legislative session that reduced state education funding.