Buckley’s city budget represents sound planning and good luck

Mayor Gavin Buckley’s first budget was transformational. It did away with a lot of budget gimmicks Annapolis used to hide the cost of city services and then paid for that honest total with a property tax rate increase.

There were complaints aplenty, and there still are. Expect it to be the focus of every Republican, and some Democrats, thinking it might be fun to be the mayor.

So Buckley could have been excused for hoping the final budget in his four-year term — he’s asking voters for another four this fall — to be less of a challenge.

COVID-19 blew those expectations away, leaving a hole in important sources of revenue for the city. So there is reason to applaud the $152 million spending plan for fiscal 2022 that Buckley delivered this week as the result of good management but also some luck.

Revenue projections have improved more than anyone predicted six months ago, most notably growth in property tax and hotel tax revenues. Departments have all been asked to cut spending. Then there is the $3.1 million in help from the American Rescue Plan Act drafted and approved by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress.

Residents will pay more under this budget, costs driven by fees for self-supporting services like water service and trash collection tied to new service contracts and infrastructure improvements. City officials say the cost could be as low as a few dollars for most people.

Of course, there will be debate. It would not be municipal government without discussion.

Talk will focus mostly on the structural deficit. That’s a wonky phrase that means city spending will outstrip revenue in future years unless a change is made in the current trajectory.

The debate will go like this: Alderman Ross Arnett, who is seeking reelection in Ward 8, will argue that systemic cuts must be made now to head off the need for tax increases in the future. He’s long been the leading voice of concern about this issue as the head of the Finance Committee.

The mayor will argue there is no structural deficit, that an improving revenue picture and future growth will keep expenses within the city’s means. Recovery and growth actually are part of his campaign platform. But it was backed by the considerable financial brainpower he brought into City Hall four years ago, the now-departed city manager Teresa Sutherland and her longtime professional associate, Finance Director Jodee Dickenson.

Once you get past that, what can be cut?

The driving factor in the 4% spending growth is people. Employees got raises baked into their contracts. Pension contributions for public safety employees are jumping from 28.2% to 34.77% of total spending on public safety personnel costs.

Cutting the structural shortfall then is about cutting people or pension expenses. Some jobs already are being held open, but no one on the council is advocating layoffs in the big departments of police, fire and public works.

More so, no one wants to get rid of people who just worked through the worst of the pandemic spread of COVID-19. Remember, essential workers were the heroes of the pandemic.

Buckley’s budget says, not he.

If the mayor is reelected, his administration will get to negotiate the next contract period with employees. Whether he wins in September and November or not, that pension obligation will be at the center of those talks.

Now that the City Council workshop on the budget has passed, it moves to various committees for some serious under-thehood looking and tire kicking.

We predict that in the end, the City Council will approve Buckley’s budget largely in the form he submitted it. They should.