Calvert County Board of County Commissioners FY2026 Budget Public Hearing - May 6, 2025
Calvert County Board of County Commissioners FY2026 Budget Public Hearing - May 6, 2025
The Calvert County Board of County Commissioners held a public hearing on May 6, 2025, to present and receive public comment on the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 Operating and Capital Budget. The hearing began at approximately 7:00 p.m. and concluded after public comment. Key themes included a projected $17.8 million revenue deficit, a zero-based budgeting approach, no tax increases, and the use of budget cuts and attrition to balance the budget. The Board of Education presented a flat budget request with no increase in county funding, relying on fund balance savings.
Discussion Items
- Opening Remarks: Commissioner Hance noted that the county faced approximately $2.2 billion in state passed-down costs (though the deficit was $17 million) and emphasized no tax increases or use of fund balance in the proposed budget.
- Zero-Based Budget: County Administrator Mark Wallace explained that the budget was developed using a zero-based approach, requiring every dollar to be justified by current strategic goals, focusing on fiscal responsibility, public safety, education, land preservation, economic development, and employee compensation.
- Budget Reconciliation: Finance Director Bruce Miller and Senior Advisor Beth Richman detailed adjustments to close the $17.8 million deficit, including $17.6 million in department operating cuts, $6.8 million reduction in pay-go capital funding, $2.4 million in eliminated vehicle requests, $700,000 in non-critical overtime elimination, and $660,000 from conferences, training, and subscriptions. Projected attrition savings of $2.7 million were included.
- Revenue and Expenditure Comparisons: Compared to FY25 adopted budget, FY26 general fund revenues decreased by $2.5 million overall, with property tax revenue increasing by $6 million, income tax by $3.7 million, and decreases in transfers and fund balance use. Total expenditures also decreased by $2.5 million, with reductions to the Board of Education ($1.6 million) and capital pay-go.
- Capital Improvement Plan: Daniel Russell presented the FY26 capital budget totaling $62.1 million, funded by $6.9 million pay-go, $23.1 million debt, $30.2 million external grants/loans. Major items included $30.4 million for Northern Middle School construction, $6 million for water system improvements, $5 million for paving, $2.9 million for public safety apparatus, and $3.2 million for parks and recreation.
- Board of Education Budget: Superintendent Dr. Townsell presented a $202.3 million total county commitment to public education (including MOE, debt service, pensions, capital). The school system requested no increase in county funding, using $6.525 million in FY24 savings and $2.5 million in anticipated FY25 savings to cover inflationary costs, Blueprint for Maryland's Future requirements, and the end of ESSER funding.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Judy Peterson (Chair, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board): Expressed gratitude for past support and requested restoration of operational funding for parks. Suggested gradual fee increases and a future park foundation. Emphasized the health and community benefits of parks.
- Marcus Shields (Resident, Prince Frederick): Supported parks funding, noting their role in youth development and economic growth. Highlighted the need for investment in maintenance and new projects.
- Jerry Mumper (Representing Calvert Advanced Life Support): Opposed the proposed addition of four new career EMS shift supervisors, arguing it would strain volunteer paramedics and cost over $1 million. Stated that 37 volunteer paramedics save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars and urged alternative options.
- Don Lavell (Resident): Criticized the budget process and document accuracy, citing errors in the commissioner's letter (e.g., contradicting use of fund balance), a slide with “$500,000 million,” and lack of FY24 actuals. Called for transparency and proper terminology.
- Barbara Warner (Chair, County Employees Representative Committee): Thanked the commissioners for including step increases and a COLA for county employees, and acknowledged improved communication and collaboration.
Key Outcomes
- The Board voted unanimously to keep the public comment record open through 4:30 p.m. on June 9, 2025.
- The final adoption vote for the FY26 budget is scheduled for the regular BOCC meeting on June 10, 2025.
- No other motions or votes were taken during the hearing.
Meeting Transcript
Mr. President, I'm moving reconvene the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners. Second. I have a motion and a second that we reconvene as the Calvert County Board of Commissioners. Is there any discussion on that motion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. I'm sorry. Commissioner Cox is online for those of you viewing in attendance. Um motion passes. So good evening, everybody. I want to welcome you to the May 6th uh Coward County Commissioner public hearing on the proposed FY26 budget. Uh just want to say a make a few comments as we get started here. Most of you that have been following this know that when the staff recommended budget was announced two months ago, two months ago, uh we had a pretty large hole in our budget, about 15 million dollars. At that time, we were concerned about issues at the state legislature because they were in the same situation we were in, and discussions were going on about passing down cost to counties, which is something that they've done in the past when they have tight budgets. So uh we really weren't sure where we were going to end up. Uh and but now that session is over. I think we ended up with about 2.2 billion dollars in passed on cost to us that we have to absorb in our budget. Uh and we have uh made enough cuts in our budget to take care of the 17 over 17 million dollar deficit that we had in the beginning of this budget cycle. Um tonight you're gonna hear our presentation on the budget, and just want to assure you from the get-go there are no tax increases or uh other pass-along costs to our citizens that we're gonna impose tonight to balance this budget. And as some of you know that follow this process tonight is not the final, we still can make some changes to the budget before its adoption in June. And tonight at the end of the meeting, we will uh set a date to in public comment, and it that'll be the next step in the process for the public. So uh thank I also want to take this time to thank staff, finance and budget, county administrator's office, and the support team for all of our work. It may it may not sound like a lot of money. We can have a 400 million dollar budget, but 17 million dollars is a lot of money. Um for those of you who've been following the last couple years, it's been tough, and we've had to use fund balance to balance the budgets. We've been uh working really hard with the Board of Education because they are the biggest expense we have in our budget, uh trying to get through this process, and uh we made a decision at the beginning of this process we were not going to raise taxes, and that we were not going to use fund balance. Uh, you can't sustain balancing your budget using reserves every year. You that you know it's called a structural deficit. You just can't do that. At some point, you've got to make adjustments. Uh, we've been working hard to find other revenue sources for the county. Uh we keep saying that we think something's on the horizon, and that horizon keeps not getting any closer. So this year we just made the decision that we have to start making changes uh to their structure of our county government. And I know that some of you are not happy about those cuts that we had to make. Uh some of you are happy that they weren't worse than they could have been. We tried to do our best to protect staff as much as we could. We tried to make cuts that were not as impactful as others could be, uh, but we know that no matter what we cut, there's going to be an impact to someone in some way, in some shape or form. And everybody has their own concerns and issues that they care about the most, and we greatly appreciate that. We appreciate all the public comment that comes in. It does help us make decisions. But at the end of the day, we're here to make decisions to make sure this county is on fine financial footing, and that's what we try to do. So with that, I'll turn it over to Beth. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Hans. I'm Beth Richman, Senior Advisor for the Department of Finance and Budget. Tonight, the first topic we will cover is the budget objectives for fiscal year 2026. Then we will review the changes between the staff recommended budget we presented in March to the Commissioner's budget that we present here tonight. We will compare the adopted budget from FY25 to the FY26 Commissioner's budget.
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