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Jun. 9, 2011
The Garrett County commissioners unanimously approved the county’s fiscal year 2012 budget and tax rates on Tuesday. Numerous county staff members attended the announcement and received copies of the new budget.
Excluding debt service and capital outlay, the FY ’12 budget is $70.4 million, which is $2.7 million more than the current year’s operating budget.
But, overall, there is $1.745 million more in debt service and $12.687 million more in capital outlay/projects in the FY ’11 budget than the newly approved one. FY ’12 begins on July 1.
Commission chair Gregan Crawford said the county faced many budget challenges and numerous drafts of the document were created and reviewed over the last four months before Tuesday’s version was approved.
“We have to continue to be vigilant in our efforts to the achieve the best return for the taxpayers’ money as possible,” Crawford said. “We look forward to working with the various departments and seeing how we can squeak out a little more money here and there and generate some more savings.”
In the early stages of the FY ’12 budget development, county departments were asked to submit “ideal” budgets, as if money would actually be available for their entire “wish lists.”
“This actually served many purposes,” said Commissioner Bob Gatto. “It allowed us to [evaluate] long-term and short-term needs and allowed us to develop some priorities in moving forward.”
He noted that the wish lists would have put the county in the red by $16 million, but county personnel and the public worked together to develop those priorities, which are reflected in the approved FY ’12 budget.
Commissioner Jim Raley noted that it was very obvious that the wish lists were not realistic without a significant property tax increase.
“I think most of us know that was something that we were not willing to do,” Raley said.
The commissioners unanimously approved keeping the county’s real property tax rate at $.99 per $100 of assessed value. Because of a tax differential agreement with the county, Mtn. Lake Park’s tax rate will be $.939, which is $.003 more than last year. The rates include special fire levies and the county landfill bond tax, Raley noted.
He said revenue in the FY ’12 budget mirror the current one, except for an additional $244,000 from the county’s assessable base and $1,130,500 in personal property/ordinary business revenue from Constellation’s wind turbines. The additional revenue, Raley noted, enabled the commissioners to maintain the Garrett County Scholarship Program and help the Board of Education offset funding cuts from state and other sources.
Education accounts for the largest portion, $30.6 million or 41.78 percent, of the county’s FY ’12 budget. The commissioner allocated nearly $24.9 million to the BOE, which is $1.7 million more than the FY ’11 allocation. Garrett College will receive about $4.3 million. The Ruth Enlow Library will get $982,700, and $450,000 is earmarked for the scholarship program.
“I know the Board of Ed. is going to have to look really, really hard in their budget for next year, especially with the imminent threat of teacher pensions, or some amount of teacher pensions being passed on to county government,” Raley said. “That could possibly be a $1 million the first year out.”
FY ’12 allocations in other areas are as follows: general government, $6.7 million; public safety, $9.1 million; public works, $16.9 million; community health, $1.4 million; parks, recreation, and culture, $55,000; public service, $170,842; economic development $1.5 million; economic opportunity, $2.7 million; miscellaneous, $1.3 million, which includes transfers to the county airport, tax rebates to municipalities, and a contingency fund of $300,000; and debt service, $33,399.
The commissioners also allocated $2.7 million for capital projects/outlay. The largest project appropriation is for the purchase of a Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) building in the Southern Garrett Business & Technology Park for $1.15 million. The purchase will be funded with a $244,926 Appalachian Regional Commission grant, county matching funds in the same amount, and the balance of $660,148 will be financed by the that with a 30-year loan at 3 percent interest.
The building will be rented to businesses in an effort to boost economic development in the county. The debt service of $33,399 will be offset by utilizing the rental income from the facility.
The MEDCO building purchase agreement will also enable the county to proceed with development of the Keyser’s Ridge Industrial Park, with the GC Department of Economic Development actively pursuing new tenants, the commissioners note in their message at the beginning of the FY ’12 budget document.
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