Montgomery County employees may be laid off or told to take unpaid leave this year to help ease the county’s budget woes, County Executive Ike Leggett said Monday.
Less than a month into the county’s current fiscal year, Leggett told the County Council in a letter that the county needs mid-year savings that could include job losses because of looming state cuts to the county’s budget and a projected $370 million budget gap in fiscal 2011.
Leggett didn’t have specifics on the number of jobs that could be affected or the number of days employees would have to take off, because the county is waiting to see what kind of reductions in state aid it will face.
The county’s reductions will come on the heels of cuts made earlier this year when the county approved the current fiscal year’s budget, which closed a more than $550 million budget gap and eliminated 400 jobs.
Leggett has previously warned of furloughs but has managed to avoid them so far. The last time the county furloughed employees was for four days in 1992, according to County Council Staff Director Stephen Farber.
But the county’s recent cuts have “removed much of the flexibility” to avoid some of the more unpleasant means to close enormous budget holes, Leggett said.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said last week that the state will have to cut aid to local governments to bridge a mid-year $700 million budget gap.
O’Malley said specifics would be announced before Labor Day, but county officials said they are anticipating “significant” cuts that may leave little choice but to implement furloughs. Salaries and benefits account for 80 percent of the county’s $4.4 billion budget.Giving all county employees an unpaid day off would save $10 million a day, according to county budget director Joseph Beach.
Leggett said any furloughs should be across the board “to ensure equitable treatment of employees and to produce substantive savings.”
Fraternal Order of Police union past president Walter Bader said the union had not met with Leggett to discuss possible cuts, but said some county services are more “vital” than others and furloughs will mean “less police officers on the street.”
Prince George’s County Council recently approved a 10-day furlough for its employees for the second straight year. Last year state workers had furloughs for up to five days.
OUT OF WORK
Montgomery County’s unemployment rate has climbed to its highest level in 20 years:
» 2007: 2.7 percent
» 2008: 3.2 percent
» 2009: 5.7 percent
Source: Mont. County Department of Finance
