On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., the Carroll County Board of Commissioners held an open session in Room 311 of the County Office Building to release the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget. Director of Management and Budget Ted Zaleski presented the 81-page overview, emphasizing that this is a proposed budget and not final; community presentations begin April 22 and a public hearing is set for May 6, with adoption scheduled for May 21. No public comment was taken as this was a presentation-only session.
Budget Overview and Commissioner Actions: Zaleski detailed how the proposed budget was developed from a recommended baseline and highlighted specific additions made by the Commissioners. Key actions included:
State Budget Impacts: Zaleski noted negative state cost shifts: $3.5 million additional for teacher pensions, $200,000 for community college pensions, and a new library pension shift. The state also required counties to pay for private pre-K providers, starting at $90,000 this year. Highway user revenue is projected to decrease by one-third next year. Program Open Space increased $700,000, but Zaleski cautioned it may not be recurring.
Operating and Capital Highlights: The all-funds budget increases by over $160 million from FY26, largely due to transfers to capital ($35 million higher). The operating budget (general fund) is up $65 million, again driven by capital transfers. School debt service, OPEB adjustments, and increased IT costs were noted. Capital budget jumps $93.5 million, with $79 million for schools. Not included: William Winchester Elementary modernization, several library projects, senior center projects, and a future detention center.
Commissioner Comments: Commissioner Vigliotti stressed the need to clearly communicate the county’s substantial education funding effort—above maintenance of effort for years—and the impact of state cost shifts. He requested a total of all accumulated state cost shifts (not just annual increases) to show the true county contribution, noting that the county has no control over those costs or benefit design. He also highlighted that Carroll County implemented Blueprint teacher salary increases two years ahead of many counties.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. Welcome to the release of the fiscal year twenty twenty-seven proposed budget presentation. As we always do, we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection. I plug allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all the computer. This is not the final document that's going to come next month after uh community presentations, which are set to begin this week, and a formal public hearing as well. So just as a reminder, there is no public comment today because this is only a presentation. So again, what we have and are offering today is what the commissioners are proposing for uh fiscal year twenty twenty-seven. And to take us through everything, I'll turn it over to Ted and Heidi. Okay, thank you. This is the eighty first time I've done this. That was a joke. I'm not sure how many times it's been, but it's been a lot. Maybe it feels with eighty one with us. Feels like eighty one with us. So we're here to talk about the commissioners' FY twenty-seven proposed budget and our plans for FY twenty-seven through thirty-two. This presentation is not an attempt to cover everything that's in the budget. Uh we are trying to highlight the things that are changing, the things that are probably interesting to people. We want to give information on actions that the commissioners took in a larger context. And now we get a little deeper into that idea. So, what are we going to cover? We want to talk about how did we get here? Starting point for the commissioners' deliberations was a recommended budget that the budget office puts together based on the current plans in place and whatever information we have now that we didn't have a year ago, whatever new direction we might have from the commissioners that we didn't have a year ago. We'll talk about the Commissioner actions, the things they actually said we want to do this thing that is not in our current budget or plans. We'll talk about some state actions and how that affects us in Carroll County. Talk some about how things are changing from the existing plan to the plan that's being proposed. We'll go through some operating highlights and some capital highlights. Because we're approaching things in several different ways, there are items that might come up more than one time. Only two slides, and I already fell behind. Okay, Commissioner Actions. Carroll County Public Schools, they increased what we're proposing to fund the school system by $6.5 million above the $7.5 million that was already built into the plan. They added a capital project for a modernization or replacement to Liberty High School. There's a number of HVAC and roof projects that moved up in the plan, partially as a result of removing Sykesville Middle and Freedom Elementary School addition projects. And Sykesville and Freedom is uh an interesting situation. Um the timelines for the school systems capital and our budget adoption don't line up very well. So right now, Sykesville and Freedom are in the school systems plans, although there's expectation that next time around, they are going to change that. Community college, commissioners added 450,000 for a feasibility study for the college's trades, technology, and training building. As of this proposed budget, there is not construction funding built into the plan yet. This is a project that will be something approaching 200 million dollars. Public library, commissioners added $600,000 to support salary increases, funding to support three additional positions, and another capital project for a modernization or replacement of the Eldersburg Library. Commissioners added $65,000 for a video series that they want to do in cooperation with the State's attorney's office looking at various aspects of drug use, abuse, law enforcement, prosecution, rehab, and everything else that goes along with that. Added one-time funding of 50,000 to the Carroll County Literacy Council. In the circuit court, responding to anticipated legislation on how courts need to be staffed. They added three part-time and one full-time bailiff. Another significant capital project. This was already partially in our plans but has evolved some. This will be a major reconfiguration of courtroom number six to make it a can't think of the word I want. Put us in a position to have major jury trials like we do in courtroom 10 now. But also the State's attorney will be vacating space that they have in the state in the courthouse annex for the new building that they're going to be moving into. This also will include redoing that space.