Montgomery Council to Host Community Forums On Structural Budget Challenges and Options to Maintain Long-term Fiscal Balance

Forums Will Address Options Presented to Find Long-term
Solutions and Help Prevent Annual Budget Shortfalls

ROCKVILLE, Md., January 26, 2011—The Montgomery County Council has scheduled a series of forums over the next five weeks that will present details of options to address structural challenges that will lead to long-term changes in the County budget. Councilmembers will join representatives of the County’s Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO), which late in 2010 issued a two-part report examining the County’s structural budget challenges and offering options that could be adopted to address them.

The report “Achieving a Structurally Balanced Budget in Montgomery County” presented options for the Council to consider that would help prevent future budget shortfalls.  These options include:  reducing or freezing employee salaries; reducing the County's contribution for employee health benefits; restructuring retirement benefits; reducing the size of the workforce; reducing debt service; and increasing revenues. In Part I of its report, OLO identified trends that had contributed to the structural deficit.

The forums, some of which are part of regularly scheduled advisory group meetings, are open to all residents:

Feb. 2 (Wednesday), 7:30 p.m. County Council Town Hall Meeting—Francis Scott Key Middle School/910 Schindler Dr./Silver Spring

Feb. 9 (Wednesday), 7:30 p.m. East County Advisory Board—East County Regional Service Center/3300 Briggs Chaney Rd./Silver Spring

Feb. 15 (Tuesday), 7 p.m. Mid-County Advisory Board—Mid-County Regional Service Center/2424 Reedie Dr./Wheaton

Feb. 17 (Thursday), 7 p.m. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Advisory Board—Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Service Center/4805 Edgemoor Ln./ Bethesda

Feb. 22 (Tuesday), 7 p.m. Silver Spring Advisory Board—Silver Spring Civic Building/One Veterans Place/Silver Spring

Feb. 28 (Monday), 7 p.m. Up-County Advisory Board—Up-county Regional Service Center/12900 Middlebrook Rd./Germantown