Montgomery County officials say they do not consider Maryland’s so-called “doomsday” budget — the cuts-only approach that would go into effect if state lawmakers do not return to Annapolis in coming weeks — particularly bleak.
“That’s how bad the regular session treated Montgomery County,” County Executive Ike Leggett said on WTOP’s “Ask the County Executive” program on Thursday. “We are better off with the doomsday versus the original budget.”
The doomsday budget would slash $512 million in state spending, much of it in education funding. It also includes a roughly 10-percent increase in tuition at the University of Maryland, and it cuts the biotech tax credit that many Montgomery County businesses benefit from, said Democratic state Del. Brian Feldman, head of Montgomery County’s House delegation.
But in Montgomery County, that is better than the budget that lawmakers proposed, Leggett said. The proposal includes a shift of the cost of teacher pensions to local jurisdictions — predicted to cost Montgomery County roughly $27 million the first year and to increase exponentially each year after that –paid for partly by income tax increases estimated to affect about a third of Montgomery County residents.
The doomsday budget costs the county less money, said County Councilman Craig Rice, D-Germantown and a former state lawmaker. “The solutions in the doomsday budget are temporary. … This proposed [budget deal that Maryland lawmakers did not vote on] impacts Montgomery County forever.”
“I don’t know why we use the word ‘doomsday,’ ” said Montgomery County Taxpayers League President Joan Fidler. “A doomsday budget would be a lot closer to Armageddon, and we’re not quite there.”
But if the doomsday budget goes into effect, state lawmakers will likely return to the same proposals next year, said Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large.
The doomsday budget also means chopping away at county services, said Council President Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda. “If you look at it solely through the prism of taxpayer impact, obviously the doomsday is better for taxpayers.”
