Police and firefighters will join thousands of other Montgomery County employees forced to take unpaid vacations next year as part of a County Council budget agreement Thursday.
County workers — including uniformed public safety officials originally thought to be spared from mandated off time — will take three to eight days of furloughs in the fiscal year starting July 1, depending on their salaries. Some of the roughly 12,000 employees will lose 3 percent of their yearly earnings.
At the same time, public school employees won’t be dinged workdays, with top brass in the Montgomery County Public Schools system vowing to avoid furloughs.
Salary
Furloughs
Pay drop
Less than $50,000
3 days
1.2 percent
$50,000-$100,000
5 days
1.9 percent
More than $100,000
8 days
3.1 percent
The decision is drawing outrage from public safety advocates, who say county leaders are buckling under the pressure of taking on the county’s largest employer.
“It just shows the ability of the school board to get whatever it wants out of a bunch of weak politicians,” said Walt Bader, the Fraternal Order of Police union’s chief negotiator. “Superintendent Jerry Weast and the school board won. Public safety has lost.”
Had school officials agreed to furloughs, county workers would have needed just 1.5 days off to raise the $15 million County Executive Ike Leggett sought in savings, said Stephen Farber, the council’s staff director.
Schools account for roughly two-thirds of the county’s work force. More than 2,620 public school employees earn over $100,000 a year.
Leggett proposed 10 days of furloughs for county employees, excluding uniformed officers. The altered plan will produce $2.8 million less than he proposed, as the county closes a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall.
A day earlier, council members ended a stare down with school officials, cutting an extra $24.4 million in school funding. MCPS officials then dropped threats to sue the county.
A day earlier, council members ended a stare down with school officials, cutting an extra $24.4 million in school funding. MCPS officials then dropped threats to sue the county.
The teachers union was not apologizing.
“The idea of equity by furloughing everyone doesn’t make sense,” said Doug Prouty, head of the Montgomery County Education Association union, pointing to the different pay structure for teachers. “The work is not going to go away for teachers. Schools wouldn’t open with classes ready for kids.”
Gino Renne, president of the Montgomery Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, said the schools are bloated.
“County leaders decided out of nothing more than raw political fear to allow the excesses of the school board to continue,” he said. “It’s a sad day for the rest of the work force and taxpayers.”
Council members said they would prefer school employees take furloughs but that they can’t tell the school board how to spend its money.
The council came to a near-unanimous agreement on the $4.3 billion budget — down 4.5 percent from last year — with Councilmen Phil Andrews and Mike Knapp the lone nay votes.
The budget relies on $110 million in additional energy taxes, millions of dollars in new ambulance fees and steeper taxes for cell phone use.
