4.3% Budget Increase Passes in Montgomery

By Ann E. Marimow and Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 23, 2008

The Montgomery County Council signed off yesterday on a $4.3 billion budget that will increase homeowners' property tax bills about 13 percent on average. Residents will also pay more to keep the lights on, buy Ride On bus passes and park in public lots in Wheaton and Silver Spring.

Spending for Montgomery's public schools will rise 4.1 percent, but the increase is less than what the system requested. In response, Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast outlined for the first time yesterday how he will deal with a leaner budget.

"I expect these reductions will be painful, but we will do everything we can to minimize the impact on classrooms," he wrote in a memo yesterday to the Board of Education, which is scheduled to review his recommendations next month.

Weast proposed scaling back plans to add assistant principals at 10 elementary schools and to hire elementary school guidance counselors and parent community coordinators. But he recommended funding middle school initiatives to seed magnet programs, accelerate math and reading instruction and train teachers.

Overall county spending will rise 4.3 percent, the smallest increase in at least 12 years and a reflection of a slowdown in revenue growth related to weakened housing and employment markets.

Although the council approved the budget unanimously, there were signs of lingering dissatisfaction with the path chosen to close a projected shortfall of nearly $300 million. Before reaching a tentative deal last week, the council was deadlocked over whether to revise labor union contracts that provide most general government workers with raises of 8 percent.

"This is not a budget to celebrate," council member Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda) said, looking back on the deliberations. "I, for one, had wanted a budget that embraced a greater sense of shared sacrifice. But the only hope we had of obtaining that result was if all the parties were prepared to participate, and that was clearly not the case."

In private meetings with County Council President Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty) in recent weeks, union leaders had discussed ways that employees could help trim spending. The leader of the county's largest employee union, Gino Renne, said yesterday that his members had been prepared to go back to the bargaining table if directed to by the council. He said his members would have reluctantly considered phasing in scheduled pay raises.

"We were anticipating a struggle during the budget process," Renne said. "We try to be pragmatic."

To close a budget gap five years ago, leaders of the unions representing county government and school system employees agreed to defer pay raises for several months.

But it became clear to the council this year that the school system, which accounts for half the budget, would probably not go along. Board of Education President Nancy Navarro (Northeastern County) told the council in testimony last week that she would not vote to roll back raises for school employees, whom she called "our most strategic investment."

Several council members said it would be unfair to try to reduce raises for county government workers when the panel lacks the authority to revise contracts for school employees, who negotiate with the school board.

"I couldn't ask these guys to do what nobody else was willing to do," said council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large).

Even if the school system had been willing to bend, some council members had reservations about tampering with contracts.

In the compromise approved yesterday, the council agreed to leave the contracts untouched; hold the property tax rate at the current level; and trim an additional $16 million from county government and school system operations.

The council voted to exceed Montgomery's charter limit on property tax revenue, which ties increases to the rate of inflation. Although the rate remains 90.3 cents per $100 of assessed value, bills from homeowners will increase on average 13.4 percent because of rising assessments. To ease the effect on homeowners, the council approved a $579 credit for primary residences.

Reversing cuts made by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), council members restored funding for police recruits, community outreach officers and evening staffing at the Glen Echo and Laytonsville fire stations. It put off debate on Leggett's proposal to create an ambulance transport fee and instead increased the local energy tax rate to raise an additional $11 million.

The council also recommended that Leggett consider changing county policy in order to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays at county-operated liquor stores.

The school system will eliminate 66 positions, including 54 central office jobs, Weast said. Only 12 positions will be lost at the county's 200 schools, he said.

Weast said he will recommend that the school board retain about half of the $10 million proposed for new or ongoing academic initiatives in the next academic year, programs that will largely shape his legacy in the county. Weast is in his third four-year term and has said it will be his last.

Work will continue on expanding an academic magnet program at Poolesville High School and introducing the college-preparatory International Baccalaureate program at Kennedy and Seneca Valley high schools. Nearly $1 million will go toward providing more special education staff at neighborhood schools.