Education, vulnerable residents, public safety — all seek money from a shrinking pot

As requests for the county's Fiscal Year 2024 budget continued this week, the Washington County Commissioners started wrestling with priorities in the face of projected stagnant revenues in coming years.

Early in their weekly meeting Tuesday, Washington County Teachers Association President Neil Becker made a plea for more money for education. He noted that while the county's public school system ranks 10th out of 24 jurisdictions in the state for the percentage of its current budget — 46.6% — earmarked for education, that doesn't translate into higher salaries for teachers.

A teacher with a graduate degree, advanced credentials and 15 years of experience makes less in Washington County (about $68,000) than in 9th-ranked Cecil County ($81,000), 11th-ranked Charles County ($82,000), 12th-ranked Baltimore County ($76,000) or 13th-ranked Talbot County ($73,000).

"The fact that the county is in the middle of the pack … it's not necessarily a fact worthy of highlighting," Becker said.

"Washington County educators are earning considerably less — between $5,000 and $14,000 less than the similarly ranked and lower-ranked counties."

But Chief Financial Officer Michelle Gordon did highlight that fact when she addressed the commissioners later in the meeting.

"I think it's important for the public to know that the commission supports education and public safety," she said, noting that the largest portion of the draft FY 2024 General Fund budget, $122.8 million, has been earmarked for education.

That includes money for Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown Community College and the Washington County Free Library. Of the total, $109 million has been allocated for WCPS — the single largest allocation in the budget. The next highest, nearly $75.2 million, is for public safety.

"The county does heavily invest in education for the community, and I just wanted to make sure that that was apparent," Gordon said, adding that the per pupil allocation had risen from $4,278 in 2013 to $5,055 in the current budget. That represents an 18% increase over the decade, she said. That's an average incremental increase of $70 to $77 per year.

Commissioners' President John Barr said he doesn't believe those increases are keeping up with inflation.

The FY 2024 draft budget includes a 1% per pupil increase from the current budget. Gordon warned that beginning in FY 2030, the state will be shifting more of the cost of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, a comprehensive framework for improving education, to county governments.

How much does a tax cut cost?

Gordon noted that recent county tax cuts, which lowered the tax rate from 3% to 2.95%, had also reduced the county's disparity grant from the state (funding given to jurisdictions with low per-capita tax revenues) from a previous level of $4 million to $5 million per year to just under $3 million.

"The disparity grant increases as your income tax rate increases," Gordon said, "so as the income tax rate is lower, at 2.95%," the grant also is lower.

In response to a question from Commissioner Derek Harvey, Gordon said the county had lost a cumulative $13 million to $14 million annually as a result of tax cuts.

Faced with a growing senior population, Commission on Aging seeks more money

Year after year, "that's a pretty substantial amount," Harvey said, "given all the requirements that I continue to hear from constituents … whether it's for the Commission on Aging, or for schools … I get a lot of emails and calls about roads, the backlog for farmland conservation, to say nothing of the challenges we're going to have with EMS and fire going forward in order to maintain public safety at a standard that we're going to need to as our county grows."

Commissioner Wayne Keefer cautioned against relying on disparity grants — used to help pay for services for lower-income residents — for funding because, he said, the state has considered eliminating them. In addition, he said, as residents' incomes and home values increase, so do their taxes — which he said equates to a tax increase.

"Our expenditures have outpaced our earnings growth," he said. "There's more than one way to skin a cat — I mean, you could increase taxes, but I'm fearful those people we would be increasing taxes on, they're gonna feel that economic brunt as well."

Where should the spending focus be?

Keefer said he would like to increase funding for the Commission on Aging by $500,000. The commission cited its needs earlier this month, including staffing needs and a lengthy waiting list of seniors needing services.

"When we talked about a vulnerable population, seniors are going to feel, and are feeling, the inflation probably more than other demographics that still have an opportunity to increase their earning power," he said.

But Gordon cautioned against increasing a single line item by that much, as it would represent more than a 50% increase from the commission's current allocation.

"Our revenue is only growing about 2% per year," Gordon said. "It's not keeping pace with that expenditure growth."

Commissioner Randy Wagner staked his budget position based on his top priority — emergency medical services.

"I've been fighting for first responders for four years," he said. "I just don't want to spend any more money on anything until we satisfy our EMS requirements … police we've helped, fire we've helped, EMS is in dire need of help. that's a big deal for me.

"I think we need to get that, in my mind, at least started on the right path before I'm going to commit to anything."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: MD county considers budget priorities and shrinking revenue growth