Leggett To Offer Cautious Budget
6% Increase Would Shrink School Request

By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 12, 2007

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett will unveil his first budget tomorrow, proposing hiring more police officers and firefighters, adding money for more moderate-income housing and funding most of the $137 million increase sought by the school system.

In an interview last week, Leggett said he would increase overall spending "more than 6 percent" without raising taxes in his $4 billion budget plan.

If the County Council approves the proposal, Leggett, who took office in December, will have delivered on a campaign pledge to support an array of programs without asking residents to pay higher taxes for services.

Leggett noted that although he hopes to spend more on government services, the rate of the spending increase is lower than the 9 percent then-County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) gave to many county agencies last year. The council, in a recent 5 to 4 vote, also showed a reluctance to raise limits on county spending.

The slowdown is needed, Leggett said, because of continued pressures on the county's treasury, which faces a nearly $200 million projected shortfall.

That stems from a combination of factors, including the need to fully fund some programs that started last year, a likely dip in expected school funding from the state, and a $30 million increase for retirement funds mandated under new federal rules.

Leggett also has signaled that he is willing to take what could be a politically risky course by rebuffing the school system's request for a nearly $137 million increase in its budget. Although he did not provide specifics, sources familiar with the plan said he will offer about $117 million for the school system, which recently approved negotiated salary increases of almost $70 million. The sources requested anonymity so they don't preempt Leggett's announcement.

Schools officials asked for nearly $2 billion, or about half the county's operating budget.

"We are growing the budget," said Leggett, discussing the broad outlines of his proposal in his Rockville office. "The question is the way we grow."

His task grew more complicated last week, he said, after state lawmakers said they will likely delay funding of extra school funds for Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the face of a looming state budget deficit.

When fully phased in, the plan, part of the Thornton Commission's proposal to equalize education funding statewide, would steer an additional $34.7 million a year to Montgomery.

Schools spokesman Brian Edwards said Superintendent Jerry D. Weast would wait for tomorrow's official budget release to comment. But Edwards said it "would be disappointing" if Leggett chose "not to fully fund the school system budget like his predecessor, who regularly funded the budget at nearly 100 percent levels." He said the public schools "have shown that the investment we have made produced exceptional results."

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."