County executives. Committee chairs. Budget managers. Elected officials. In their own way, each faces some tough financial decisions for their community.
Across the Baltimore metropolitan area, local governments have engaged in a round of heavy belt-tightening and started trimming the fat out of their budgets for fiscal 2009 in anticipation of an economic downturn and reduced state aid.
Some seek a simple percentage budget decrease from various departments, having made cuts for efficiency already. Others have curbed budget spending and are taking a look at the bigger picture of their finances. In one case, a community raised its spending on an increase in expected revenue.
Below is a look at the economic choices and strategies of local communities.
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
Things aren?t as cold as they could be in Anne Arundel, said budget officer and fiscal weatherman John Hammond.
The county has instituted a hiring freeze to save money through the end of the fiscal year, among other measures to cut costs now. But Hammond said not all jobs are on ice ? there?s still room for filling critical positions.
“It?s not a hard freeze,” he said. “It?s a 31-degree freeze, not a 24-degree freeze. There?s some slush in there.”
The county also has instituted new rules requiring its chief administrative officer to approve expenditures of more than $500. Hammond said a midyear look at use of county-owned vehicles led to belt-tightening, which he expects will save the county at least $600,000 a year.
County Executive John R. Leopold has pushed for higher impact fees and a tax increase on Constellation Energy Group?s Anne Arundel power plants to offset cuts in state aid. Still, Hammond said he expects a lean year and has asked all departments to trim 5 percent from their fiscal 2009 budgets.
“Next year is going to be a very challenging year, too,” he said. “We?re not building the budget based on the exorbitant expectations. Our revenue estimates are going to be pretty conservative.”
BALTIMORE CITY
Baltimore City Councilman Bernard “Jack” Young isn?t afraid to be the exception to the rule.
The city?s spending plan unveiled last month would increase expenditures by $250 million, up nearly 10 percent from fiscal 2008. While revenues from real estate sales are expected to drop more than 30percent, city officials expect that an estimated 11 percent increase in revenue from local income tax on an influx of higher-income residents would support the increases.
Young, chairman of the council?s budget committee, said the city can spend for one more year but expects a much more modest budget next year. He said he will also look to trim this year?s spending plan as much as possible while it?s in his committee.
“I?m going to have the department chairs come in and [then] ask them what they can cut out of their budgets this year,” he said. “I?m quite sure there?s some redundancies that they can cut. Nothing will be spared, I?m looking at everything. The only thing I won?t do is layoffs, no personnel cuts, but I?ll look at everything else.”
BALTIMORE COUNTY
Don Mohler, like the rest of Baltimore County, is guilty.
“Very often Baltimore County is accused of being fiscally conservative,” said Mohler, director of communications and County Executive Jim Smith?s spokesman. “And to that charge, we plead guilty, guilty as charged.”
Since 1992 the county has adhered to spending affordability guidelines, projections of personal income growth of county residents that dictate the government?s spending plans. And in the 16 years since, Mohler said no county executive has submitted a budget that exceeds that figure.
The fiscal 2009 budget that Smith will submit by April 15 will be no different. Mohler said it contains a 4.56 percent growth inspending and comes within “hundreds of dollars” of the spending affordability guidelines.
The price of cutting costs will be high, however. The budget does not offer a 3 percent cost-of-living wage increase to government or school employees. On Thursday, an arbitration panel in a 4-1 decision reversed an earlier fact-finding report concluding that the county could afford the raises.
“This is a budget that will not grow,” Mohler said. “It?s going to be an austere budget, a lean budget.”
CARROLL COUNTY
Ted Zaleski has a six-year plan.
Carroll County?s director of the Department of Management and Budget said the county?s general operating budget is tied to a six-year forecast, updated every year. That long-range blueprint outlines a balanced spending plan for each year based on revenue forecasts and best-guess estimates of other financial factors.
“When we?re building that operating plan, the choices we make today have to be sustainable for the six years, based on what we know today,” he said. “That makes it hard to do something to put yourself in a hole later. If all you want to do is balance this year?s budget, there are things you can do. But often you find you?re just pushing off a problem for one year, three years.”
Zaleski has been working with department officials on budgets for months, but he said formal budget meetings with the county commissioners were put off until after the state General Assembly?s session ended Monday.
While six-year plans are commonplace for capital budgets, Zaleski said such long-term forecasts are unusual for general fund budgets.
“It?s one of the really good things about how we manage fiscally in Carroll County,” he said. “We?ve had four boards [of county commissioners] that have bought into this plan. If elected officials don?t buy into it, it?s just paper.”
HARFORD COUNTY
Looking for an idea to make Harford?s government more cost-efficient, Scott Gibson went back to school.
Gibson is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and recalled that school?s Fels Institute of Government and the comprehensive reviews it conducted on efficiency and spending by the city of Philadelphia.
Gibson pitched a similar panel, composed of public- and private-sector leaders, to County Executive Daniel Craig, who in November gave the green light to the Commission on Efficiency and Economy in Government, chaired by Gibson. Its full report is expected in June.
“The one thing we?ve found is that everyone has to be holistic about this,” Gibson said. “To make useful changes you have to look at the structure, the entire picture, you can go about it piecemeal.”
The budget unveiled by Craig on March 27 increases general fund spending by $19 million but cuts $572,210 from general government funding. The cuts represent everything from reductions in paper use to limiting training for county staff to curbing use of county-owned vehicles, Craig said.
“We told everyone to come in with a conservative budget, rather than a budget that we were going to change tremendously when it got to me in January or February,” Craig said, “that it would be better for them to make some of those tough decisions early on.”
HOWARD COUNTY
Ken Ulman hasn?t looked at cutting the county?s use of coffee filters. Yet.
The county executive took office in December 2006 and plunged almost immediately into creating the next year?s budget. Ulman said that process happened very quickly and considers the fiscal 2009 capital and operating budgets, due this month, his first real crack at the county?s finances.
“We?re talking down to membership dues and seminars, national associations ? how much did they spend in subscriptions [to those],” Ulman said. “What about furniture? Everyone needs furniture, but is this the right time? We are going that specific into the budget. This is the time to do that.”
Ulman said he expects to cut the county?s administration budget by about 20 percent. Several cuts have been made, including merging the county?s television station with Howard Community College?s own station and closing the county?s printing shop. Ulman said the latter move would save the county between $800,000 and $1 million annually.
“Certainly in these economic times, folks know the economy is much tighter,” Ulman said. “I feel there?s more of a willingness, the urgency is there, to take a new look at how government is run. Honestly, the timing can be to a county?s advantage. People understand these are tighter times.”
