Leggett To Offer Cautious Budget

In the budget document, which Leggett will release at a noon news conference, he also will propose new funding for gang prevention; a $613 tax credit for homeowners whose houses are valued at less than $475,000; an extra $10 million for a program aimed at speeding up creation of moderate-priced housing; a boost to a program for those without health insurance; and an expansion of free Ride On bus service for seniors, among other programs.

"We cannot sustain the level of growth of the past few years," Leggett said. "This is a slight turn, but I am trying to do it in a gradual way that keeps a level of growth that is sustainable for the county."

Leggett said he will propose adding 30 police officers to a force of about 1,000 and 36 firefighters to a force of about 1,200 career employees, 400 volunteers who staff firehouses and 800 other volunteers. But he said the trade-off is that he won't be able to fund all technology upgrades as quickly as the agencies want.

He said he is particularly concerned about a recent report that showed that fire and rescue response times to emergency calls rose over the last year from an average of about seven minutes to nine minutes. That's well above the six-minute response experts recommend.

Leggett said his budget also offers funds to help the library system buy books and other items, and adds money for an additional inspector to step up enforcement of housing and zoning laws. It also pays for new salary increases for county employees totaling about $45 million. More contract talks will take place this fall.

Even though home values have gone up in many parts of the county, most homeowners won't see major increases in their tax bills, he said. Some homeowners could even see small decreases if his proposed tax credit plan passes.

County law precludes an individual homeowner's tax bill from increasing more than 10 percent over the previous year's. Leggett said most residential bills would increase at about the rate of inflation.

Last year, the council agreed to lower the property tax rate by 5 cents per $100 of assessed value, to give some relief to homeowners whose assessments increased. That put the average rate paid in the county at about 90 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Leggett earlier this year sounded his first warning about school funding when he told Weast that he would provide only $1.8 million of the school system's $28 million request to help reduce the number of portable classrooms, pending further study.

Over the past four years, the school system's budget has risen 31 percent, a recent council study said.

"There is no scenario I can see where we can fund 100 percent," Leggett said he told Weast. Leggett also is proposing to increase budgets for Montgomery College and the park and planning agencies, but not as much as was sought.

School board President Nancy Navarro said she and other board members are awaiting details but said Leggett had warned them that a reduction in the rate of growth for the schools was likely.

"Of course things are very tight," she said. "But absolutely, I am concerned." The board had tried to provide additional funds to pay for more guidance counselors and to help students who are not native speakers of English, among other programs, Navarro said. Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), a former school board member, predicted "a lot of bullet biting" as the council tries to find ways to figure out and then pay "for what matters to people."

Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large), who endorsed Leggett in the fall and now chairs the council committee that will examine much of the budget, said she thought it was too soon to tell how the debate would play out.

"There probably will be some hard discussions. We are going to have to so some heavy lifting in that committee. It is going to be a challenge, no question about it," she said. "We will do what we can with what we have."