Thousands of Montgomery County employees would get at least two days of unpaid and unexpected time off this year under cost-savings recommendations released Thursday by County Executive Ike Leggett.
The county’s top elected official said he will not implement the furloughs for another two months, however, warning that additional days of unpaid leave and other cuts may be necessary to solve the county’s budget problems. State leaders said last week that Maryland is facing as much as a $1 billion budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, and Leggett said the county itself projects a budget gap of more than $250 million.
Leggett’s memo to County Council members said “these continued fiscal constraints will present serious challenges in maintaining the current level of county services,” and that he “strongly believes” he will need to make additional, midyear budget cuts.
Patrick Lacefield, Leggett’s spokesman, said the county has made midyear cuts five times over the past seven years, but that a furlough has not happened since the mid-1990s. All county government facilities, including libraries, would be closed during the furlough. Lacefield said leaders are eyeing the day after Christmas and the day after New Year’s Day, both Fridays that are not counted as holidays, for the furloughs.
Essential employees, such as police and fire and rescue workers, would work those days and stagger their two days of unpaid leave to ensure safety.
In May, Montgomery Council members ordered Leggett and the county’s school board to shave $8 million each from the county and school system’s budget.
The two-day furlough for the nearly 10,000 county government workers would save the county $5.9 million, according to budget officials.
Leggett also recommended capping raises this year for certain management positions at 2 percent for those who earned “exceptional” standing during reviews and 1 percent for those who were rated “highly successful” to save $1.1 million.
The remaining funds would come from early-retirement incentives the county offered earlier this year — the county reaped $1.6 million more in savings than projected.
Police union leaders said there were better ways for the county to save money than forcing workers to take unpaid leave: They recommended eliminating unnecessary management positions and questioned some trips taken by department leaders.
“We will have to do a combination of things,” County Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg said, adding that she wants the county to find long-term budget solutions. “You can’t rely on a furlough option over and over again.”
