Gardner announces $717M operating budget for fiscal 2022

Apr. 15—Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner has unveiled a $717.2 million operating budget for fiscal 2022, an almost 8 percent increase from the prior year's budget.

At a news conference Thursday, Gardner (D) noted the budget's historic investment in public education—about $21.5 million above maintenance of effort, which is the minimum requirement for school funding per state law.

The fiscal 2022 year begins July 1.

During the past year, the county also completed a pay study for county employees, excluding those in Frederick County Public Schools and public safety. Given its findings, the budget would implement a new pay scale, which pays all employees at least $15 an hour, Gardner said.

The two highest funding sources for the county budget are property and income tax. About $370 million and $264.6 million come from those two sources this year, respectively.

The proposed budget spends $365 million on education. The Board of Education has broad authority on how to spend those funds.

Another $140 million would go to public safety, mostly through the sheriff's office.

The spending plan also implements some recommendations from the county's Equity and Inclusion Leadership team, led by Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Michael Hughes. That includes a new satellite location of the county's health department located along the Golden Mile in Frederick, which will focus on health disparities and other similar issues.

The proposed budget would distribute $1 million in community partnership grants to local nonprofits, a slight increase from prior years.

The property tax rate remains at $1.06 per $100 of assessed value, the same rate during all of Gardner's seven budgets as county executive.

That could amount to an increase or decrease in residents' property tax bills, depending on whether properties were assessed and what those were. Those assessments are conducted by the state's Department of Assessments and Taxation on about a third of county homes each year.

In an interview after the briefing, Gardner said most of the budget requests from county divisions last year were funded in this year's budget, along with some new ones.

It was important to make the one-time investment in education, a record amount of spending for the county, Gardner said.

The County Council now decides whether to approve the budget and will spend multiple days reviewing it in the coming weeks. The council has a public hearing scheduled for the spending plan and property tax rate on Tuesday, April 20 at 6 p.m.

Council members then have until May 31, per the county charter, to approve or amend the budget. More specifically, the council can only delete from line items in the budget, except for education.

If the council does not approve a budget — with at least four votes out of seven members — by the end of May, Gardner's budget goes into effect as it was proposed.

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