Carroll County Commissioners FY27 Budget Work Session - May 12, 2026
Carroll County Commissioners FY27 Budget Work Session - May 12, 2026
The Carroll County Board of Commissioners held a work session on May 12, 2026, to deliberate on the FY27 adopted budget. Commissioners discussed and voted on several proposed additions to the budget, including funds for fighting the MPRP power line project, a loan for Union Bridge wastewater treatment expansion, agricultural preservation, and park restoration. Other topics included water/sewer rates, transit service, a new sheriff's office space, and prior appropriation reporting.
Discussion Items
- Anti-MPRP Fund: Commissioner Vigliotti moved to add $100,000 to the FY27 budget for an anti-MPRP fund to cover legal fees, public relations, and related expenses. Commissioner Krebs suggested broadening the fund to also address PJM rate increase challenges. The motion carried unanimously.
- Union Bridge Wastewater Treatment Loan: Commissioner Vigliotti moved to create a $5 million standing loan fund for the Union Bridge wastewater treatment facility expansion. The loan would be drawn upon as needed, with the goal of securing other funding to supplant the county loan. The motion carried.
- Water/Sewer Rate Study Work Group: Commissioner Krebs moved to request staff to propose a work group to study water and sewer rates across the county, including municipalities, to identify funding opportunities and rate-setting practices. The motion carried.
- Agricultural Preservation Funding: Commissioner Gordon moved to allocate $3 million in one-time funding for agricultural preservation, dedicated to farms of significant size and strategic location. The motion carried after discussion about prioritizing the last 18,000 acres of the county's 100,000-acre goal.
- Rec Parks Work Group: Commissioner Guerin moved to convene a work session on the $5 million park restoration allocation and then create an advisory committee with rec council representatives to make recommendations to the board on how to spend the funds. The motion carried.
- Senior Property Tax Credit Update: Commissioner Kiler moved to have an informational update at a future open session on state and county senior property tax credits and their budget impact. The motion carried.
- Transit Advisory Council (TAC) Report: Commissioner Krebs moved to add the TAC report to a future agenda and invite the committee to present their prioritized recommendations. The motion failed for lack of a second.
- Sheriff's Office Leased Space – Eldersburg Commons: Commissioner Krebs moved to approve $2.65 million in one-time surplus funds in FY27 for the build-out of a new sheriff's office leased space at Eldersburg Commons. The motion carried 4-1.
- Prior Appropriations Work Session: Commissioner Krebs moved to hold a work session to explain active capital projects with prior appropriations and make the list more transparent. The motion was amended to a presentation but ultimately failed for lack of a second.
- PFAS Remediation Grants: Commissioner Krebs moved to instruct staff to apply for all available grants for PFAS remediation at the public safety training center before spending the $8 million budgeted. The motion failed for lack of a second.
- Budget Impact Statements: Commissioner Krebs moved to require a budget impact statement for all significant decisions. The motion failed for lack of a second.
- Vehicle for Sports Complex: Commissioner Krebs moved to remove a $40,000 vehicle purchase for the Carroll County Sports Complex from the budget and reallocate the funds to the rec parks work group. The motion failed for lack of a second.
Key Outcomes
- The board voted to advance the FY27 adopted budget for final approval in a subsequent session.
- Several motions were approved, setting aside significant funds and forming work groups for future policy development.
- Multiple motions related to transparency and grant applications failed due to lack of second or support.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Tuesday, May 12th adopted budget work session for the Board of Carroll County Commissioners, as we always do. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. Well, I hope everybody is doing well, and uh for anybody who's interested, this these are the last couple of work sessions, uh possibly the last one today, uh, regarding any additions or uh uh alterations we may make to the FY27 budget. Uh Heidi, did you and Ted want to say anything to start with, or should we just go straight into it? Well, Ted's not here, so I'll start. Um so you do have in front of you an agenda for this morning. Uh the first thing on there is the summary of the public hearing comments. So we had 17 speakers, and you can see the list of what kind of comments they had. Um so that is in front of you. In addition, we do have a couple of changes from the proposed budget. Do you want to go through those? Okay. So the first one, um, the corrections operating budget is going to be increasing. Um this is due to an anticipated inmate medical renewal cost. So we have included that in the budget. We are also this one's a little more complicated. We are separating the courthouse annex roof replacement project. Previously this was included in the county building systemics renovation project, which is one of our CIP projects. However, we've gotten some grant funding, so we're separating that project out, so that project will appear as a new project, even though it is not technically new, and we'll have a mixture of grant funding, new bonds, and we are reappropriating bonds from the existing county systemic project. Now would you like to take over? And I believe what I said was right. Um we had a couple changes in state funding for school capital projects. Uh one was a good one at Carroll Springs. Uh the bid came in higher than anticipated, but the state agreed to increase their funding. Uh the other is there's a special pot of capital money. The enrollment growth and relocatable classroom funding. We were concerned that we weren't gonna be eligible for this anymore, and as it turned out, at the last minute, uh we found out that we lost three point six million dollars of state funding we were anticipating. Uh that changes nothing in the short term for you. But it what it does is move uh a project that was in twenty-eight. Um Carroll Town was in twenty-seven, so it goes back to twenty-eight. Piney Ridge goes back from twenty-eight to twenty-nine, and then Winter Smill goes out of the plan. Ted, what was the rationale for that? What was the reasoning? Uh it's based on our enrollment, uh loss of enrollment. Even HVAC stuff. Well, it's not so much that it is about the HVAC. Okay, I'm sorry. What what's your question again? It's the HVAC replacement, Carrollton. What was their rationale for not that wouldn't be based on enrollment? Okay. It's not really about the project. It's about our eligibility for funding for any project out of that pot of money. And which pot was that the enrollment growth and relocatable classroom. And this was not a total surprise. We um we had had some rumblings that this might be what was going to happen. Uh but it wasn't until just in the last few days that we actually found out. And then we are looking to move funding from existing school capital projects to other projects now. And um that's they're all five are uh pre-K editions where we have some money remaining.
openpublica.com