Montgomery County will cut a fire and rescue worker recruit class and kick in about $1.2 million more for Montgomery College to replace state funding, under proposed budget adjustments fromCounty Executive Ike Leggett.
Officials in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s office say state legislators voted to reduce aid for Maryland community colleges from certain formula levels, which leaves county leaders who were counting on specific amounts of state money to figure out how to fill the hole.
“As a result of this action by the legislature, community colleges across the state will receive $7.9 million less than expected,” spokeswoman Christine Hansen said.
The reduction is one of many recent fiscal stings from the state for Montgomery residents. Last week Montgomery officials learned a key committee had recommended roughly $9 million less for public school construction than county leaders had expected. And in early April, state legislators approved a “millionaires’ tax,” that will raise income taxes for Maryland residents earning $1 million or more a year, about 40 percent of whom live in Montgomery. The county is also facing a $297 million budget gap.
“We are clearly taking it on the chin,” Council President Mike Knapp said. “Montgomery College, school construction — pick your area andwe’re getting less, but you look at who’s contributing to solving the state’s structural deficit, and it’s largely us. We’re sending more to Annapolis, we’re getting less back and we still have to spend even more locally because we’re getting less back from the state.”
Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield said county money for the community college will come from a different pot than the $1.9 million the county had planned to spend on a third fire and rescue service recruit class. According to Lacefield, this recruit group is not needed because Leggett’s budget seeks to eliminate 25 firefighter positions.
Fire Chief Tom Carr said he was “OK” with the loss of the recruit class.
“Do we want to slow down recruiting levels?” Carr said. “No, but it is tolerable and the appropriate thing to do in this budget situation.”
Councilman Marc Elrich, who sits on the public safety committee, disagreed.
“We’re already building new stations in places that should have had fire stations a long time ago,” Elrich said. “I think cutting a recruit class will make it more difficult to staff those locations when they open, while keeping staffing levels stable elsewhere.”
