The Government Operations Committee met on September 4, 2025, at 2:00 PM to discuss the City of Frederick's taxing authority and budget process. The meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by approval of minutes and two workshop presentations by Chief Financial Officer Katie Barclay. No public comments were received.
Discussion of the City of Frederick's Taxing Authority: CFO Katie Barclay presented an overview of the city's legal authority to levy taxes and provide tax credits, as authorized under state law. Key points included:
Discussion of the City of Frederick's Budget Process and Requirements: CFO Barclay outlined the budget process as defined in the city charter and financial policies. Key points:
Call to order the government operations committee meeting for September fourth, two thousand twenty-five. Let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Approval of minutes for August twenty-first, two thousand twenty-five. Second. Motion carries three zero. Two items on our agenda for this afternoon. The first item is discussion of the city of Frederick's taxing taxing authority. Yes. Thank you. Um, my name is Katie Barclay, I'm the chief financial officer for the City of Frederick. Um, I was asked by council leadership to present information today regarding the city's taxing authority, both to levy taxes and to provide tax credits. Um, this is a very broad topic. Um, and we could probably spend a committee session on one of these. So today I'm prepared to go kind of a mile wide and an inch deep, um, knowing full well that we should probably come back and do a deep dive into any one of these areas. Yeah, per committee direction. So, we'll just get started. So just generally um the authority to levy taxes and to provide tax credits. Um, or authorized under state law. Right. So the city can't levy taxes on anything that it chooses. Right. It has to be provided for in state law, and the same with tax credits. Um, the city is able to pass local ordinances, as you are familiar, to provide structure for implementation, and that's mostly around tax credits, right? Most of the tax credits provided for under state law, not all, but most are very general. She says, you know, you can provide a tax credit under this circumstance. And the a county or municipality can create whatever rules they want around that, as far as you know, income levels or assessment of values and things like that. But again, that authority is provided for under state law. So I was just gonna step through what we can and can't do, or I guess mostly what we can do today. And again, if we wanted to come back with with more information, we certainly can do that. So tax on real property is the city's most significant levy. Um again, that you're all familiar with. Um we set the tax rate annually uh via special ordinance. Um setting this tax rate is required under state law. However, the deadline to which to do that is very, very strange. Um state law were just changed and is now required to be done by June 20th. Our code says July 1st. Um we need to update that to be, I guess, more in line with the state. Um, but Frederick County provides our treasury services for us um regarding real property tax. Oh, okay. And this far? Yeah, it's too close, which is we're so used to having to have it. So close that you can barely that's how it used to be. Okay. So is this better, everyone? It's it's much more comfortable for me, so I like it. Um, as I was saying, Frederick County provides the treasury services for us and all the municipalities in Frederick, which they are not obligated to do. We are very appreciative of their efforts. They include our tax, our real estate tax, or a real property tax on the tax bills that they send, they collect the money and transfer to us. Um they are required per STAT to have that tax information to STAT by the end of May, um, maybe the first day in June. So that's the date that we go by as far as when the tax rate needs to be adopted.