Preliminary Budget Talks: County FY13 Expenditures to Include Takeover of More State Costs

The preliminary FY13 budget discussion during the Carroll County Board of Commissioners’ meeting Tuesday ended with the commissioners blaming Gov. Martin O’Malley for a state budget plan that requires the county to take over sizable state costs.

An early look at the budget presented by Carroll County Director of Management and Budget Ted Zaleski shows a slight increase from FY12, with one of the biggest changes coming in the form of changes in what has to be paid by the county budget.

The FY12 budget is $350.3 million, and the preliminary FY13 budget discussed by Zaleski is $353.7 million.

Under Gov. O'Malley's proposed budget, the Carroll County Public School System pensions will continue to be paid by the state, and the Board of Education will continue to pay Social Security for their employees, but the Carroll County Government will have a local responsibility to pay half of the sum of the two costs.

The change would cost the county government $7 million.

“How does that come to us?” asked Commissioner Dave Roush. “Those aren’t our employees.”

“The state is going to pass a law that say they are,” said Zaleski, stating that this is something that now has to be worked into the budget amid cuts from the state level.

In addition, the proposed impact of state funding on Carroll County includes the following cuts: 

• Carroll County Public Schools: -$600,000
• Carroll Community College: Flat
• Carroll County Public Library System: - $70,000
• County Health Department: - $60,000

“Though there are signs of economic recovery, our local revenue picture isn’t getting brighter,” said Zaleski before presenting the budget figures.

“The impact of the governor’s budget is still uncertain, but it will be negative, that much is certain. Several years of flat declining budgets have eliminated most of our flexibility in expenditures,” he said.

“As we look for places to go there are fewer and fewer options that don’t require us making a choice to do less and less of something or to not do something.”

The news of the state budget had the commissioners pointing fingers Tuesday in anticipation of the cuts to come at the county level.

“This clearly demonstrates that the governor has been consistently incapable of balancing the budget and prior to this year it was done on the backs of the federal stimulus money and money that came from Washington,” said Commissioner Doug Howard.

“Now without that money available it’s going to be on the backs of the counties and the boards of education,” he said.

“I think people should really be taking note that improvements at the state level have been severely lacking and restrain at the state level has been severely lacking and he has proven consistently that he is incapable of balancing a budget which is probably one of the primary objectives he has as a governor.”