Anne Arundel received millions of dollars in bond bills and higher fees in the 2008 General Assembly, but the county took a notable revenue hit, lawmakers said.
The state legislature approved the county?s push to increase fees on well drillers and restaurants, approved a requirement for the Maryland Department of the Environment to repay the county for testing during the coal fly ash incident, and approved more than $1 million in grant funding for new art houses and homeless shelters.
“If we didn?t do the fee increases, they were going to have to go into programs and make cuts,” said Del. Mary Ann Love, D-District 32, who is the chairwoman of the county delegation.
The fee increases and MDE reimbursements were proposed by County Executive John R. Leopold.
However, the General Assembly also made video bingo machines, hundreds of which are in Anne Arundel?s three bingo halls, illegal. The county collects nearly $2 million in taxes and fees on the machines, which must be out of the state by July 2009.
“We?re going to operate conservatively, and at least we have some breathing room to find alternatives,” said Alan Friedman, Leopold?s government affairs director.
MDE will repay the county for its work on investigating well contamination in Gambrills when heavy metals from a flyash dump were discovered to be leaching into the water table.
Even though the county?s help was crucial in MDE?s lawsuit against the companies behind the leak, MDE did not want to pay back the county. Not only does MDE have to reimburse the county, but it must so do any time the county assists the agency in the future. The county also wanted to raise fees on licenses issued to restaurants and well drillers because the costs of inspections and issuance of licenses outweighed the fees collected, officials said.
Legislators also brought back money for capital projects, including a new homeless shelter in Annapolis, baseball fields at Deale Elementary School and improvements to the historic Hammond-Harwood House. But because of tight fiscal times, only four of the 11 requests for money were fully funded, and two requests were denied.
Leopold didn?t receive additional money for public school teachers nationally certified in science, technology, engineering and math. The hope was to encourage better teaching in a fast-growing area of education, but it died in the Senate.
“Anything with a fiscal note concerned people,” said Sen. John Astle, D-District 30. “We tried hard, but sometimes you have anything.”
