OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Montgomery County Council Worksession on FY27 Budget and CIP, May 4, 2026

County Council & Committees — Monday, May 4, 2026
BodyMontgomery County, Maryland
SessionCounty Council & Committees
DateMonday, May 4, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
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0:00

One.

0:01

Good morning, everyone.

0:02

Today's May 4th.

0:04

Welcome to the Montgomery County Council.

0:07

This week we have a very important week of actions.

0:11

Today, the County Council will continue the review of the FY27 operating budget and amendments to the FY27-32 capital improvements program.

0:22

Council committees have been meeting regularly to review each department's budget, and today and the rest of the week, we will review the committee recommendations.

0:34

I don't know if she is she on.

0:36

Okay.

0:37

She is in a conference for the whole week, and she will be joining us virtually.

0:43

So with that, we're gonna start with the status report of the overview of revenues and expenditures.

0:50

I'm gonna turn it to staff so they can kick us off.

0:53

Okay, good morning.

0:54

Um so the committees have now reviewed all department and agency budgets over the past several weeks, and we've prepared a summary of the committee's recommendations to date.

1:03

And as a reminder, all committee changes to the uh proposed changes to the FY27 operating budget are tracked against the executive's March 13th recommendation.

1:13

We'll start with resource changes.

1:15

So to date, committees have recommended resource changes that would result in a net decrease of 162.4 million dollars in available funds for the FY27 operating budget.

1:25

This is primarily due to a series of geo committee recommendations on tax rates.

1:29

The first uh recommendation was to reject the executive's proposed property um tax increase and the executive's proposed income tax increase.

1:37

The second recommendation was to adopt a new progressive income tax structure, uh which would reduce FY27 resources by 64.9 million dollars to reduce the income tax offset credit in FY27 from $692 to $0 in conjunction with the progressive income tax structure, which increases FY27 resources by 139.7 million, and to apply $50 million in one-time FY27 revenue associated with the recommended property and income tax rates to the capital budget.

2:08

The next section is reductions, and to date committees have made have recommended a total of 10.3 million dollars in reductions compared to the county executive's budget.

2:16

And the full list of proposed reductions so far is on page 10 of the staff report.

2:20

And so if the council, just starting with these two elements, if the council were to uh adopt the resource changes and reductions recommended to date, it will need to find an additional 152.1 million dollars in reductions to approve a balanced budget as shown in the table on the first page at the bottom of the first page of the staff report.

2:40

Uh on page two of the staff report, we summarize the required reconciliation list items.

2:46

And the committees have added 214.2 million dollars to the reconciliation list for further consideration per the council president's budget approach.

2:54

Decisions not to fund items on the reconciliation list will reduce the gap that I just mentioned uh in the table previously.

3:01

28.9 million dollars of the total on the reconciliation list is for additions, enhancements, or other proposed cost increases from Montgomery County government, and 5.7 million is from proposed replacement of grant funds with general funds in county government.

3:15

The biggest chunk of the money on the reconciliation list is 179.6 million dollars from MCPS's uh requested increase in local funding over FY26.

3:25

We also have um additions that the committees have recommended to be considered as part of the budget, and in total, committees have placed $9.8 million in additions on the reconciliation list.

3:34

Decisions to fund additions will increase the gap shown in the table because they were not assumed in the executive's proposed budget.

3:40

Um details on all these different um elements are um included on pages three through twelve of the staff report.

3:48

And additionally, um the attachments include various budget proposals or memorandums prepared by council members uh for their colleagues' consideration as part of your deliberative process.

3:58

Thank you.

4:01

Thank you so much for that uh report.

4:05

Not new, not good news at all.

4:08

Um looking at the first page, and I hope everybody can see it and read it.

4:13

It's on our agendas.

4:15

Um posted it as the first item.

4:19

And uh the remaining gap for a balanced budget is 152 million dollars, and I think we need to keep that in mind as we move forward uh this week, where we are gonna have to make some serious reductions.

4:36

I think uh this is a reminder that this county cannot continue to spend money the way it has been for a while.

4:45

The needs are huge, yes, but this gap is a wake-up call.

4:52

And it does require leadership and it requires another way of thinking of how we should be able to run a government in responsible way.

5:03

Um later today, we're gonna have the vote on the property tax increase.

5:10

With that said, I think um we all can make the assumption on where that vote is gonna go.

5:16

We already have a committee recommendation for that one.

5:20

Um but the fact that we received a budget by the county executive with numbers that don't exist, right?

5:28

In order to fund this budget, we needed to have a 6.3 cent property tax increase plus an income tax increase that targeted everybody, regardless of how much money they made.

5:39

And the fact that many of the decisions that we're making or where the money is going, in this case MCPS, we have no authority.

5:50

And that conversation of having authority has been revealed uh pretty strongly in recent actions that we have made uh as late as last week when we voted on that out the CAP item on the outdoor um athletic fields.

6:07

We don't have authority to say to NCPS if you should use natural grass or turf at all, yet the county executive inserted that into the whole conversation when he knows we don't have the authority.

6:22

And I do appreciate how NCPS has evolved to be more transparent.

6:30

Um but the budget request is huge, and whatever decisions we're gonna be making this week, I'm gonna make make it very clear, will affect how the reconciliation will end up.

6:43

And the biggest driver for that is MCPS.

6:47

I want to make sure that's absolutely clear.

6:51

I put out a guideline to a budget memo.

6:58

I think that was three weeks ago at this point.

7:00

It feels it feels like decades ago.

7:03

Um, understanding that we were moving forward to not having a property tax increase, and that this council needed to see, put everything on the table and truly analyze where can we have reductions in a way that we do not affect the most vulnerable and in a way that really um ensures that the county will continue to run.

7:25

And I think that process has made me realize something that we have talked about in the past, but it has never been so vivid as I see it now, is that we have a system that is completely broken.

7:39

We have negotiations with unions where the council doesn't participate, then we have MCPS that have their own negotiations with their own union, and then we ended up with to figure it out how we can afford to pay the bill.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Fiscal Sustainability████████████████████████████████████████████44%
Technology and Innovation██████████████████18%
Procedural█████████████13%
Water And Wastewater Management██████████10%
Community Engagement█████5%
Personnel Matters████4%
Historic Preservation███3%
Transportation Safety██2%
Parks and Recreation█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Montgomery County Council Worksession on FY27 Operating Budget and CIP

On May 4, 2026, the Montgomery County Council held a full-day worksession (9:34 a.m.–1:40 p.m., with a recess from 11:55 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) to review the FY27 Operating Budget and amendments to the FY27-32 Capital Improvements Program (CIP). The Council considered committee recommendations for multiple agencies, took straw votes, adopted collective bargaining agreements, and set a course to close a $152.1 million budget gap after rejecting the County Executive’s proposed property tax increase.

Status Report – Overview of Revenues and Expenditures

  • Council Executive Director Mr. Howard reported that committees had recommended resource changes resulting in a net decrease of $162.4 million in available funds, primarily from rejecting the Executive’s property and income tax increases and adopting a progressive income tax structure.
  • Committees recommended $10.3 million in reductions and placed $214.2 million on the Reconciliation List (including $179.6 million for MCPS and $28.9 million for county government enhancements). The remaining gap to a balanced budget stood at $152.1 million.
  • Council President Fani-González stressed that the county cannot continue past spending patterns, called for a revised labor negotiation process, and announced a fall roundtable with MCPS, unions, and county executive nominees to address systemic issues.

Ethics Commission

  • Action: Straw vote to approve the FY27 operating budget as recommended by the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee, including a $273,000 enhancement for IT system upgrades placed on the Reconciliation List. Passed 11-0.
  • GO Committee Chair Stewart noted the Ethics Commission’s e-filing system (mandated by law) crashed after a server migration in April, requiring urgent upgrades. The commission’s one-person operation needs the system to remain operational.

Historical Activities Non-Departmental Account (NDA)

  • Action: Straw vote to approve the FY27 budget as recommended by the joint Education and Culture (EC) and Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committees, including $15,000 for the Black Oral History Initiative on the Reconciliation List. Passed 11-0.
  • Montgomery History requested $50,000; the committees placed $15,000 to maintain community engagement momentum. The oral history project has recorded interviews from seven communities and aims to preserve African American history.

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC)

  • Action: Straw vote to approve the FY27 budget as recommended by the PHP Committee. Passed 11-0.
  • The Park Fund received a 4% increase (same as County Executive’s recommendation). The committee placed $2.7 million on the Reconciliation List to reduce salary lapse from 10% to 8% in tranches, enabling hiring for park police and maintenance positions.
  • Planning department faced a 7% request but a 3.6% increase; $118,000 in planning enhancements placed on the Reconciliation List. Departments reported that staffing has not kept pace with county growth: county agencies saw a 26% increase since 2009; planning saw a 6.9% increase.

WSSCWater

  • Action: Straw vote to approve a 5% volumetric rate and fixed fee increase, a 2.4% increase in the System Development Charge, and the FY27 operating budget as recommended by the Transportation and Environment (TE) Committee. Passed 11-0.
  • General Manager/CEO Powell reported that the Potomac Interceptor repair cost estimate rose from $20 million in January to approximately $59 million (including planned and urgent work). WSSC’s share is about 30.9%, or roughly $20 million, to be funded through the rate increase.
  • The winter season saw approximately 1,908 pipe bursts from November through March. The Bi-County meeting with Prince George’s County to approve WSSC items is scheduled for May 14, 2026.

Washington Suburban Transit Commission (WSTC)

  • Action: Straw vote to approve Montgomery County’s share of the WSTC administrative expense budget at $171,793. Passed 10-0 (Councilmember Katz temporarily absent).

Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS)

  • Action: Straw vote to approve the FY27 operating budget as amended by the GO Committee, with an additional $400,000 reduction on a motion by Councilmember Jawando. Passed 10-1 (Councilmember Evans opposed).
  • The amendment reduced the “Re-align: contractual support offset by elimination of long-term vacancies” line item from $1,098,453 to $698,453. TEBS Director Roper argued the reduction would impact services, but Councilmember Jawando stated the CAO confirmed no operational impact.
  • Three items were placed on the Reconciliation List: $375,000 for an HHS Community Connect portal study, $144,000 for a cloud-based backup system, and $170,000 for digital accessibility compliance software.

Cable TV and Communications Plan

  • Action: Straw vote to approve the FY27 operating budget at $7,824,171 as recommended by the GO Committee, which rejected the Executive’s consolidation plan pending final contracts. Passed 11-0.
  • The GO Committee recommended maintaining the status quo (direct fund transfers to MCPS and Montgomery College) because the new contract with MCM/MCT was still under review by the County Attorney. The County Executive’s consolidation would yield about $300,000 in savings; the committee’s recommendation retains that assumption but reverts to the previous funding structure for FY27.

Property Tax Rate Options

  • Action: Straw vote to approve the GO Committee’s recommendation to keep the weighted real property tax rate at $1.0255 per $100 of assessed value (no increase from FY26), rejecting the County Executive’s proposed 6.3-cent increase. Passed 10-0-1 (Councilmember Mink abstained).
  • Councilmembers cited economic hardship, federal job losses, and affordability concerns. Council President Fani-González reiterated plans for a fall roundtable on structural budget issues.

Compensation and Benefits for All Agencies

  • Action: Without objection, the Council approved technical corrections to the MCGEO resolution (updating legislation dates, revising Deputy Sheriff salary increase to 3.77% and Corrections officer increase to 1.56%) and approved all compensation packages for FY27.

Collective Bargaining Agreements

  • Action: Adopted en bloc Resolutions 20-1097, 20-1098, and 20-1099, approving FY27 collective bargaining agreements with MCGEO (Local 1994), IAFF (Local 1664), and FOP (Montgomery County Lodge 35). Each passed 11-0.
  • The Council also approved: FY27 pay adjustments for non-represented employees (motion by Jawando, 11-0); FY27 allocations for group insurance (motion by Balcombe, 11-0); FY27 retirement allocations (motion by Jawando, 11-0); and compensation-related NDAs totaling $36 million along with budget resolution language requiring council approval for hazard pay over 10 consecutive days (motion by Luedtke, 11-0).

Key Outcomes

  • The Council rejected the County Executive’s proposed property tax increase and will work to close a $152.1 million gap through reductions, with final budget action scheduled for the following week.
  • All straw votes and resolutions passed with broad bipartisan support; only TEBS faced a split vote (10-1).
  • A fall roundtable will be convened with education, labor, and county executive stakeholders to reform the budget process.
  • The meeting adjourned at 1:40 p.m.

Meeting Transcript

One. Good morning, everyone. Today's May 4th. Welcome to the Montgomery County Council. This week we have a very important week of actions. Today, the County Council will continue the review of the FY27 operating budget and amendments to the FY27-32 capital improvements program. Council committees have been meeting regularly to review each department's budget, and today and the rest of the week, we will review the committee recommendations. I don't know if she is she on. Okay. She is in a conference for the whole week, and she will be joining us virtually. So with that, we're gonna start with the status report of the overview of revenues and expenditures. I'm gonna turn it to staff so they can kick us off. Okay, good morning. Um so the committees have now reviewed all department and agency budgets over the past several weeks, and we've prepared a summary of the committee's recommendations to date. And as a reminder, all committee changes to the uh proposed changes to the FY27 operating budget are tracked against the executive's March 13th recommendation. We'll start with resource changes. So to date, committees have recommended resource changes that would result in a net decrease of 162.4 million dollars in available funds for the FY27 operating budget. This is primarily due to a series of geo committee recommendations on tax rates. The first uh recommendation was to reject the executive's proposed property um tax increase and the executive's proposed income tax increase. The second recommendation was to adopt a new progressive income tax structure, uh which would reduce FY27 resources by 64.9 million dollars to reduce the income tax offset credit in FY27 from $692 to $0 in conjunction with the progressive income tax structure, which increases FY27 resources by 139.7 million, and to apply $50 million in one-time FY27 revenue associated with the recommended property and income tax rates to the capital budget. The next section is reductions, and to date committees have made have recommended a total of 10.3 million dollars in reductions compared to the county executive's budget. And the full list of proposed reductions so far is on page 10 of the staff report. And so if the council, just starting with these two elements, if the council were to uh adopt the resource changes and reductions recommended to date, it will need to find an additional 152.1 million dollars in reductions to approve a balanced budget as shown in the table on the first page at the bottom of the first page of the staff report. Uh on page two of the staff report, we summarize the required reconciliation list items. And the committees have added 214.2 million dollars to the reconciliation list for further consideration per the council president's budget approach. Decisions not to fund items on the reconciliation list will reduce the gap that I just mentioned uh in the table previously. 28.9 million dollars of the total on the reconciliation list is for additions, enhancements, or other proposed cost increases from Montgomery County government, and 5.7 million is from proposed replacement of grant funds with general funds in county government. The biggest chunk of the money on the reconciliation list is 179.6 million dollars from MCPS's uh requested increase in local funding over FY26. We also have um additions that the committees have recommended to be considered as part of the budget, and in total, committees have placed $9.8 million in additions on the reconciliation list. Decisions to fund additions will increase the gap shown in the table because they were not assumed in the executive's proposed budget. Um details on all these different um elements are um included on pages three through twelve of the staff report. And additionally, um the attachments include various budget proposals or memorandums prepared by council members uh for their colleagues' consideration as part of your deliberative process. Thank you. Thank you so much for that uh report. Not new, not good news at all. Um looking at the first page, and I hope everybody can see it and read it. It's on our agendas. Um posted it as the first item. And uh the remaining gap for a balanced budget is 152 million dollars, and I think we need to keep that in mind as we move forward uh this week, where we are gonna have to make some serious reductions. I think uh this is a reminder that this county cannot continue to spend money the way it has been for a while. The needs are huge, yes, but this gap is a wake-up call. And it does require leadership and it requires another way of thinking of how we should be able to run a government in responsible way. Um later today, we're gonna have the vote on the property tax increase. With that said, I think um we all can make the assumption on where that vote is gonna go. We already have a committee recommendation for that one. Um but the fact that we received a budget by the county executive with numbers that don't exist, right? In order to fund this budget, we needed to have a 6.3 cent property tax increase plus an income tax increase that targeted everybody, regardless of how much money they made. And the fact that many of the decisions that we're making or where the money is going, in this case MCPS, we have no authority. And that conversation of having authority has been revealed uh pretty strongly in recent actions that we have made uh as late as last week when we voted on that out the CAP item on the outdoor um athletic fields. We don't have authority to say to NCPS if you should use natural grass or turf at all, yet the county executive inserted that into the whole conversation when he knows we don't have the authority.

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