ANNAPOLIS – Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s fiscal 2012 budget proposal slashes state aid to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties by a total of $70 million. He would cut Montgomery’s aid by roughly 4.3 percent and Prince George’s County’s aid 3.2 percent.
About $60 million in cuts, half from each county, would come from transportation, public safety and local government operations. The state would save an additional $10 million by charging the counties for property assessments, a cost the state historically has covered.
“[Fiscal] 2011 has been a brutally difficult year for county and municipal governments, and what we’re looking at for fiscal year 2012 is incrementally more difficult,” said Michael Sanderson, legislative director for the Maryland Association of Counties.
| The proposed cuts | ||||
| County | Estimated fiscal 2012 aid* | Proposed fiscal 2012 cuts | Proposed fiscal 2012 aid | Additional property valuation charges |
| Montgomery | $831.2 million | $29.5 million | $801.7 million | $5 million |
| Prince George’s | $1.09 billion | $30.9 million | $1.06 billion | $4.1 million |
| * Estimated in the fiscal 2011 budget | ||||
He said local governments will need to raise property taxes to absorb the cuts.
“Practically speaking, if Maryland continues to shift responsibility to local governments, it is a totally unsustainable system,” he said. Sanderson warned that counties would have to perpetually raise property taxes to balance their budgets. “We really can’t do this for the long haul.”
Montgomery and Prince George’s, Maryland’s two most populous counties, would take on roughly 30 percent of the proposed $230 million in cuts to local governments. Each county would receive roughly $35 million less in state aid than the current budget had projected for fiscal 2012 appropriations.
County and city officials say transportation cuts have been the hardest to absorb.
“Raising property taxes to pay for roads is bad policy,” Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo told the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. “But I have one option, which is raise property taxes or let the roads crumble, which will end up costing my town more [in the future].”
The state has slashed local highway user revenues, which pay for county’s road and bridge repairs, by roughly 97 percent in the last five years.
“We desperately need a relief to fund road maintenance, street repair, sidewalk construction and snow plowing activities,” said Aberdeen Mayor Michael Bennett, who also serves as president-elect of the Maryland Municipal League. “Funding must be reinstated.”
