Baltimore County officials are asking voters to approve nearly $250 million in loans from private sources to fund everything from a new radio communication system for the police department to school roofs.
Officials said they expect few of the 10 referendum questions appearing on ballots in November to generate controversy, though the total requested is the largest in county history. Voters last decided bond bills in 2004, when the county asked them to approve $230 million.
County finance director Fred Homan credited this year?s increase to an expensive upgrade to the police and fire department?s radio communications systems. Borrowing for school projects typically generates the most positive votes, he said, followed by recreation and parks initiatives.
“They all do well, but there is a little strata,” Homan said. “It could be because people don?t get down to all the questions.”
The ballot questions do not identify specific projects ? which some voters called problematic, citing an incident in 2000 when voters unknowingly approved funding for a new county jail in a contentious location.
County officials lumped the jail expansion with projects for libraries and police stations, said then-Council Member Wayne Skinner, and gave it to council members too late for them to make changes before the question was entered onto ballots.
“It made it difficult to target that project when there were other goodies in the bill,” said Skinner, a Republican who is running for election again this year in the fifth district.
Government officials make little effort to explain ballot questions ? and some intentionally leave them ambiguously worded, particularly when it comes to spending and raising taxes, said James Gimpel, a political science professor at the University of Maryland.
“Not many voters pay attention to them,” Gimpel said. “Some of them reflexively vote no on all of them. Fewer vote yes for all.”
Voters in Baltimore County can educate themselves on the specific projects covered by the borrowing ? which are identified in this year?s capital budget ? on ballot brochures distributed in county libraries, Homan said.
2006 BORROWING REFERENDUM
» Schools: $72,543,000
» Parks Preservation and Greenways: $8,320,000
» Public Works: $74,503,000
» Community & Economic Improvements: $3,750,000
» Operational Buildings: $54,929,000
» Refuse Disposal: $5,360,000
» Community College: $17,216,000
» Agricultural & Rural Land Preservation: $6,000,000
» Waterway Improvement: $6,750,000
» Total: $249,371,000
Source: Baltimore County Office of Budget and Finance
