The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners met on December 18, 2025, to approve the fiscal year 2026 budget, consider numerous resolutions, and hear public comments. The meeting lasted approximately 2.5 hours. The board unanimously passed a $1.2 billion total county budget, including a 4% real estate tax increase, and approved several grants, contracts, and appointments.
It's really hard to do this. I was waiting on them to come back. We will call to order the December eighteenth, twenty twenty-five meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, seeing all three commissioners present. I will ask uh the CEO of our zoo to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. He's always the best dress, so hardly even recognize that you need to work with a little bit more flashy so we can see great. So good morning today. that night. And of course, breaking ground on the Lansdale Transitional Housing Facility, which happened earlier this year. I want to thank Kaylee Silver for all of her leadership. If we did not have an expert like her, who's absolutely committed and passionate about making sure everyone in Montgomery County has a place to call home. We wouldn't be this successful. There's a lot we're going to talk about in our budget for what we've committed to housing. It's one of the top priorities. What I'm excited to announce today is that the county will be receiving a $1 million donation towards the Lansdale Housing Facility, courtesy of the Toading Foundation, which is led by Nunn Cody. He is president Penn Manufacturing, which is manufacturer in the Lansdale area. They make engine parts in the aerospace and other industries. But he was very generous. He wanted to learn about the work that the county is doing and felt inspired to give back. Someone who lived the American dream came to this country in the 70s with little to nothing to his name and wants to give back. And what's incredibly just inspiring about that, I think, is for our team to get investment from the philanthropic sector really says something about how government functions and works effectively, and that's something that we've all focused on in terms of our efficiency, proving our ability to get better outcomes for every resident in our community. And it's so much so that we're able to get philanthropic funding for government, which is something exceptional. So the facility is going to open early next year. It's going to provide 24-7 housing, 20 beds, four single rooms, eight double rooms, a warming kitchen, recreation spaces, uh, laundry, and an office space for case management. When people stay at the shelter, they're gonna have support from our team that and working with RHD, our partner, to make sure that they can actually get back on their feet and whether it's finding a job, they're getting the health care access they need, working with landlords to find affordable rent. Uh it's really going to be an exceptional facility. And so I want to thank everyone and thank Commissioner Weiner working with Lansdale and Commissioner De Bello for his commitments and all of the work and collaboration that made it possible. We're excited to open that next year. So I think it's also a really great example of how at a moment the federal government had no budget. We didn't know what was happening. In fact, it was a potential loss of five million dollars in the continuum of care funding for housing. Uh, the state government, of course, had a stalemate for a number of months, and uh we still got to advocate for housing funding there. Uh, this is really an example of how the county is stepping up, and members of the community and leaders are stepping up as well. So uh today we're gonna be here to vote on the entirety of the budget, and Dean Dortone CFO will present it in a few minutes. Before he does, just want to thank all the staff. This is the result of months and months of hard work, uh, many, many meetings with department heads. Uh all of this is something that requires deep engagement from the three of us as commissioners, and it's required deep engagement for for the department heads and uh ensuring that we're meeting our goals as a county in terms of delivering services and trying to stretch uh to do everything we can with limited resources. So I think governments about compromise. We all came in with opinions about what our top priorities were, but there were certain things that we all agreed on, which was how you know housing, mental health, substance abuse, addressing the top topics that are our residents are facing. And I think you'll see that we're really proud of where we landed and the staff present that. So uh thank you again to our team. Um, I'll have two quick uh announcements. One is that we're heading a sustainability committee. So uh Davy, our sustainability officer right over here, uh, is going to be uh creating this advisory committee for her, and it's going to advise Monco on our countywide sustainability plan in 2026. So that's the clear goal is to create this plan. And applications will be open for this committee until close of business January 16th. So we welcome applicants from any range of backgrounds, environmental science, business economics, any relevant disciplines. So again, that's until January 16th. Finally, tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah. We've been celebrating at home with my son.