Residents would pay more and get less under county government cost-savings recommendations suggested in a memo released Friday evening from Montgomery’s top elected official to council members.
Montgomery Council President Mike Knapp said he plans a quick response to County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposal, which would reduce the size of the next class of police recruits by 25 percent and delay opening a Silver Spring clinic for the uninsured while increasing fees for county bus service and towed cars. The county is facing a $401 million budget gap for the fiscal year that begins in July.
“While some of these reductions will be difficult for the Council to consider, any deferral in making hard choices now will only make our work more difficult in the spring as we finalize the [fiscal 2009] operating and capital budgets,” Leggett’s memo to council members said. If Leggett’s changes are adopted, the county would shave $23.6 million off its costs alone before the next fiscal year begins.
The county executive’s memo came after Leggett asked all department heads to brainstorm ways to reduce current spending by 2 percent. Leaders attribute the $401 million projected deficit to less money than predicted from late income tax returns and a decrease in revenue from taxes associated with home sales because of the county’s faltering real estate market.
Knapp said he has asked council members to review Leggett’s proposals over their holiday break so they can act on the belt-tightening measures on Jan. 15, the first day the council is back in session.
Cuts could include eliminating some “Ride-On” bus services, which is expected to affect nearly 2,000 riders per day and, per the memo, “in some cases eliminate any transit service” to certain unnamed communities where ridership is lowest.
In addition, the plan acknowledges that fire and rescue departments may take longer to respond to incidents given cost-savings methods, like taking a Hillandale ladder truck out of service and conducting annual physicals and certain recertification tests while rescue workers are on duty.
The plan also calls for a decrease in fire station maintenance, while acknowledging that “fire stations in the county are for the most part very old structures that have not been well-maintained or upgraded.”
“No one is going to be pleased with reductions,” Knapp said in a written statement. “Our goal will be to minimize service impacts on our residents.”
