Feeling Tapped Out in 2 Counties

Leaders in Montgomery and Fairfax counties think they know how they are viewed in their state capitals.

As "an ATM," Montgomery Executive Isiah Leggett (D) recently told a breakfast gathering of county business and education leaders, to thunderous applause.

"A rich uncle," Virginia Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax) said of the commonwealth's image of Fairfax.

But now the ATM has gone dry, Leggett says. And the uncle has no money to spare. Groaning under projected budget shortfalls spiraling into the hundreds of millions of dollars, leaders in the most affluent Virginia and Maryland counties have a message for state leaders during their legislative sessions: Don't look only our way to solve state budget woes.

They promise to resist proposals that cut state aid to local governments in ways that wallop populous and affluent areas harder than other regions.

"We have been the first to give, and we are also the ones who most oftentimes are the ones to get the disproportionate impact of cuts," Leggett said in an interview. "We have to stand up and say enough is enough."

Hugo said, "Fairfax cannot afford to pick up the tab all the time for the whole state."

The prospects of Fairfax and Montgomery succeeding in their argument are uncertain. State leaders are stressing the need for shared sacrifice in the plummeting economy.

"This idea that, not just Montgomery, but county governments have somehow been held hostage to the state, I think it falls on deaf ears for a lot of legislators," said Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel).

Busch noted that Maryland's unusual practice of allowing counties to impose an income tax makes millions of dollars available to local governments.

The legislatures of both states faced daunting budget gaps when they convened their annual sessions Wednesday. In Annapolis, lawmakers have 90 days to close a potential $1.9 billion shortfall in the fiscal 2010 budget; in Richmond, delegates and senators have 45 days to fill a two-year, $3 billion hole.

Meanwhile, Montgomery is projecting a shortfall of $450 million in fiscal 2010, and Fairfax is looking at $650 million.