Calvert Unveils Spending Increases for Staff, Schools

Calvert County's budget talks for the coming fiscal year went public last week after months of preliminary discussions.

County financial officials presented the staff's recommended $221.8 million budget for fiscal 2009, which begins July 1, at a public hearing attended by only a few residents.

Funding is included for the new Barstow Elementary School, additional sheriff's deputies and construction of the community pool complex in Prince Frederick.

The budget, a 7.6 percent increase from this year's, projects millions of dollars of revenue lost in state income taxes, recordation taxes and interest income. The county staff proposes using nearly $3 million in reserve funds to cover the cost of new accounting rules for retirement benefits.

Revenue from recordation taxes and interest from the county's investments in low-risk money-market and Treasury bonds together are expected to drop $5.5 million in the coming budget year, said Terry Shannon, the county's director of finance.

Shannon said the increased cost of fuel, utilities, employee benefits and payroll, including new hires, helped to drive the increases in the proposed budget. About 120 new staff positions were requested, she said, but fewer than 40 were included in the budget.

The Calvert Sheriff's Office had requested 14 new deputies but was allotted five. The detention center requested 17 new corrections officers but was allowed three. Animal Control wanted six new officers, but only one was included in the budget.

The county is required to pay $6 million in anticipated retirement benefits for county employees, under rules of the private-sector Governmental Accounting Standards Board. The county began setting aside extra money in richer budget years to help cover the expense. The proposed budget sets aside about $3 million from the reserve fund to cover these costs, said Tammy McCourt, the county's deputy director of finance and budget.

On top of that, the Maryland General Assembly is discussing whether local governments should pay those costs for state employees serving exclusively in local agencies. In Calvert, that cost would apply to the health department staff and would require an additional $900,000, said Wilson H. Parran (D-Huntingtown), president of the county commissioners.

The largest allocation in the budget, half of it, would go to schools, McCourt said. The county's portion of the school system budget, including debt service and benefits, is $111.6 million, a 6.8 percent increase from last year.

The funding includes $1 million for Barstow Elementary operations, $800,000 for higher energy costs and additional funding for program initiatives, McCourt said. The county's school funding formula, which has been in place for three years, takes into account the consumer price index, enrollment growth and the cost of doing business, said Jack R. Smith, superintendent of Calvert County Public Schools.

"If either group is struggling, we can go back and talk" about adjustments, Smith said. He said that cuts are coming from the state, but that they will be minimal and should not require the school system to request more county funds.

The school system has presented a $186.6 million operating budget. Most of what is not funded by the county will come from the state.