Future state budget deficits could place funding for parks and a new program that assists parents of disabled children on the chopping block.
“We?re often the low-hanging fruit. It?s been pulled before,” said Carroll?s Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Degitz on Thursday, referring to parks funding.
Gov. Martin O?Malley has allocated more than $2.5 million in his proposed fiscal 2008 capital budget for Program Open Space parks in Carroll.
But that money is often the first to go when state officials are looking to balance the budget, said Vivian Laxton, county spokeswoman.
The state funding will finance the renovation of Westminster Community Pond and a walking trail from the Carroll County Health Department to Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster, Degitz said.
As the county?s population grows, so too will the need for athletic fields and recreation facilities, he said.
Last year, Carroll reached the milestone of securing 30 acres of open space for every 1,000 residents ? a state benchmark that has rewarded Carroll with more flexibility in how it spends its Open Space dollars.
But with the governor?s office predicting “annual deficits of $1 billion for the foreseeable future,” county officials are worried about the fate of such programs.
Commissioners agreed Thursday to approved $125,000 in state funding for a new center that would help parents of disabled children navigate human-services programs, but they expressed cautionthat the “Get Connected Resource Center” might not last.
The center, expected to open in March, could help 30 families this year, and if funding for the program continues, up to 2,400 families next year, said Jolene Sullivan, county director of citizens? services.
