Spending Requests Outpace Resources In Howard County: Official

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — With a $64 million operating budget shortfall and growing debt service payments, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball has released the spending affordability advisory committee’s report for the fiscal year 2022. The committee has been tasked with making recommendations to the county executive on revenue projections, general obligation bond authorizations, long-term fiscal outlook and county revenue and spending patterns. Ball launched the SAAC ahead of schedule in November 2020, providing the committee with additional time to review the unique economic circumstances amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re facing a challenging economic outlook amid the ongoing pandemic, with a $64 million operating budget shortfall and growing debt service payments that constrain our ability to absorb new debt or fund other operating needs. I encourage all our residents to read the SAAC report to fully understand Howard County’s limitations as we prepare our FY 2022 budget,” Ball said in a statement. “I appreciate the time and effort of all the members of the spending affordability advisory committee and the important insight they provide to our budget process. We have tough fiscal choices ahead of us and we are going to need to decide on our priorities as a community.”

The report highlighted the first-of-its-kind fiscal challenges Howard County is facing. Spending requests outpace resources amid slower economic growth with a projected fiscal gap of $36 million between expenditure requests and projected revenues in fiscal year 2022 in the report. The gap is now even larger - at $64 million - based on the board of education’s fiscal year 2022 budget proposal released Feb. 25. If approved by the County Council, the BOE operating budget request would represent an increase of more than $50 million from last year’s budget, marking the largest monetary increase on record and the largest percentage increase (8.1 percent) since fiscal year 2008. Capital budget requests for fiscal year 2022-2027 doubled affordable debt level while rising debt burden resulted in less capacity for new capital improvement programs debt authorization in the future.

• Fiscal year 2022 budget be developed based on projected general fund revenue growth of 2.3 percent ($26.7 million) over the fiscal year 2021 budget;
• New authorized GO bonds in fiscal year 2022 of no more than $50 million; and
• Using a 5-year revenue projection of 2.2 percent on average.

In the report, the committee urged elected officials to make hard choices in collaboration with stakeholders to match expenditures with resources and develop a balanced and sustainable budget. Key recommended strategies include:

• Pausing new CIP projects given the severe debt constraints
• Reducing new debt issuance over the next six years
• Prioritizing annual CIP budget to address maintenance backlog in existing infrastructure
• Balancing service needs as a full-service county especially amid a pandemic
• Funding the Howard County Public School System at the state-mandated level
• Developing a long-term strategic fiscal plan and promote commercial base growth

“The county is at an economic and financial crossroads,” committee member Richard Clinch said. “The slowdown of population and development growth and a shift of housing to multi-family units means a continuous slowdown in the assessable base and personal income growth. The county has to adapt to this slow-growth environment.”

To read the full report, please click here.