Municipal property taxes would rise and public services would be slashed under County Executive Ike Leggett’s plan for big cuts in county funding to cities and towns.
The county reimburses municipalities a total of about $7.5 million a year to provide services the county would normally provide. Now Leggett is proposing a 25 percent cut in that funding as the county faces a nearly a $1 billion budget gap.
Several municipalities such as Gaithersburg, Friendship Heights and Garrett Park are crying foul because Leggett originally told them he would only cut 5 percent, and many cities have already prepared their budgets for next fiscal year, which starts in July.
“Since our budget and tax rate have already been adopted, our only choice will be to cut long-planned [capital improvement] projects such as needed water quality improvements which the town has planned and saved monies for several years to implement,” the commissioners of Poolesville told the County Council in a letter.
The cities are already reeling from sharp drops in state aid for road maintenance.
Leggett increased his proposed cuts to 25 percent after learning that the county’s income tax revenues would be more than $160 million less than expected and a bond-rating agency voiced displeasure with the lack of reserves he had left in his original budget.
Hardest hit would be Takoma Park, which shares a border with the District and Prince George’s County and was annexed by Montgomery County more than a decade ago. Takoma Park receives most of the county tax reimbursement because it is the only municipality in the county that has its own full-service, 40-officer police force that doesn’t share duties with county police.
Takoma Park Mayor Bruce Williams said Leggett’s budget is inequitable because it cuts Takoma Park police’s budget by 25 percent while cutting county police services by less than 4 percent.
“That just doesn’t make any sense,” Williams said.
Takoma Park is considering raising its property tax by 3 cents per $100 of assessed value to compensate for the $750,000 it would lose in county cuts. The increased property taxes would amount to about $100 a year for a $400,000 property.
A County Council committee has indicated its willingness to reduce or eliminate Leggett’s latest increase, but the County Council is trying to find funding for a number of other causes.
