Montgomery County’s tax-supported work force will grow by 1,071 employees next year, or 3.4 percent, under the proposed fiscal 2007 budget, but council members are expressing doubts about the county’s ability to sustain that growth in the long term.
“Not enough attention has been paid to the future costs,” said tax watchdog Marvin Weinman, president of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League.
“It’s not just five years council members should be looking at. When it goes out 10 years, they don’t figure out what their retirement cost is, what their medical is.”
County Executive Doug Duncan’s five-year budget outlook assumes the council will vote to override the voter imposed tax cap for each year after 2007.
But Council Member Phil Andrews, D-District 3, called the county executive’s expectation that the council wouldn’t stick to the charter amendment unreasonable. He has called for more detail about the “full impact” of staff increases for future budgets.
Duncan proposed a 9.5 cent reduction in the property tax as part of his $3.9 billion fiscal 2007 budget. But because that cut would mean the county faces an $800 million annual shortfall in five to six years, council members prefer a one-time property tax rebate that would trim $128 million off next year’s revenues, the same that would be provided in one year by the tax cut.
The numbers
» Total employees: + 1,071 to 33,031
» Public schools: + 590 to 20,723
» Public safety: + 158 to 2,634
»Health and Human Services: + 26 to 1,502
» Public Works: + 5 to 448
Source: County agency workyears analysis; fiscal 2007 budget proposal
