Bel Air 2020 Budget Introduced: Coronavirus Is 'Devastating'

BEL AIR, MD — Town Administrator Jesse Bane presented a budget proposal to the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners Monday that he said was beyond bare bones. In just six short weeks since the new coronavirus has changed operations around the state, he said the loss of revenue this fiscal year "may have hit six figures already," impacting the town's capital and operating budgets.

"The economic impact to our operations has been devastating," Bane said. "Our revenue stream continues to be a downward moving target."

Highway user revenues, money from vehicle titles, the amusement tax and water user fees were all down due to the coronavirus pandemic. While earlier in the month the prediction was that red light camera revenue would be down $200,000, for example, the budget presented Monday night showed a $435,000 reduction.

"Some of our businesses will not survive these shutdowns," Bane said. "These factors will negatively impact our property tax revenues."

Bane said there were three priorities in his budget:

• No property tax increase. "Giving the pain this pandemic is causing our citizens and businesses ... I am asking for no increase in the property tax rate," Bane said. There has been no property tax increase since 2004, he reported.
• "There will be no cuts in essential services," Bane said.
• "There must be no reduction in our forces," Bane said. Its workers are the town's most valuable asset, he said, noting there were needs for additional staff in public works and police department. The town plans to address these in FY 2022.

"The police facility is not dead," Bane said. The town is working with architects and will pay for the project to build a new police headquarters with its capital reserve, planning to aggressively pursue construction in FY 2022.

"If there's any good news at all in my forecast I would say it's in the area of minimum wage increase" because the town is "ahead of the curve," Bane said.

A 2 percent cost-of-living increase will be added to salaries of town employees. While it was the goal of the town to give merit increases, the budget will not allow it, he said.

Federal, state and county budgets project "serious economic losses" as well, he said, comparing the impact to the recession of 2008.

"The town may have to reevaluate our operations and our revenue but I believe at this point as a result of our sound economic policies," Bane said, "we are well positioned to weather the economic storm."

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