Councilman John Grasso Talks County Budget at Republican Gathering

County Councilman John Grasso was the guest speaker at the District 32 Republican Club meeting held at Severn United Methodist Church Tuesday evening.

“He's a new councilman,” said Shirley Kaliszak, the program chairwoman for the club. “It's important for the club to get to know the councilmen because they are the ones who will be representing us and voting on issues that are important to us.”

Kaliszak introduced Grasso as someone "who is making a lot of changes and a lot of waves – good waves.”

Grasso set the tone for the meeting by letting the members knowhe did not have a speech planned and desired to open the meeting for a question and answer format.

“I find that going right off the cuff is more real and will give you more of an idea of what I'm all about," Grasso said. 

Questions brought up by the members included concerns about the high water bills in Anne Arundel County, the planned redistricting of the county's voters and whether public employees should be allowed to be part of unions. The main focus of the meeting, however, was the impact of recent budget changes in Anne Arundel County on its citizens.

Grasso outlined the history of the budget problems in the County, stating that the budget was an estimated $18.5 million behind when the recent legislation began.

“530,000 people require services from the County,” Grasso said. “When we lose money from the budget, whether because of the housing crisis or another situation, we still have the same amount of people who need services and the money has to come from somewhere.”

Grasso outlined a plan developed he developed with Dick Ladd and Derek Fink that sought to consolidate government agencies and offer permanent structural cuts within Anne Arundel County's service agencies. The plan was slated to drop $10 million from the budget each year, decreasing the deficit from $50 million to $10 million by the time the councilmen left office, according to Grasso. 

The Councilman said a series of events involving arbitration between the unions of public service employees and the County led to the actual bill that was passed, which removed $5 million from the budget of Anne Arundel Community College.

“The college is a business in Anne Arundel County,” said Grasso. “It's a huge money-maker and when you take money away from the college, everyone loses money in the long run. This decision will suck the blood out of the college and will have several negative effects over the long haul.”

Grasso described the negative effects of pulling funding from the college in great detail.

“The first thing this will do is set a precedent with the General Assembly.  The State will feel that if Anne Arundel County can afford to give $4 million back to their citizens, then they can afford to take on the responsibility of their teachers' pensions. Taxes will go up to cover the pensions of these teachers. We will also see our bond rate drop. We have virtually nothing in savings and banks are going to begin seeing us as a high risk. Interest rates for our loans will go up, and this 4 million dollars will end up costing us millions more in the long run," Grasso said. 

Grasso discussed his commitment to donate his salary to serving the community in his district.

“The people elected me,” said Grasso, “I'm not here for the money, I'm here for them.”

Grasso said he made the commitment to donate his first year's salary to cleaning up the environment in his district. The Councilman also shared that he plans to donate his second year's salary to the SPCA and to donate his third year's salary to churches and other organizations that need help serving the public.

“My goal is to help people accomplish their goals,” Grasso said. "I feel like I'm saying to them, 'I'll buy you that garden hose, I just want you to water the plants.'"