Dozens come out to budget hearings to discuss 11% tax hike

The room was packed at a Montgomery County budget hearing Thursday asmembers of the public alternated between criticizing a proposed 11 percent tax increase and praising the community college that a portion of that money will fund.

The proposed $409.5million budget for 2017 dedicates about $22.3 million to funding Montgomery County Community College, an increase ofmore than $4 million above prior funding levels.

For a Montgomery County home assessed at the average value of $169,000, the 2017 proposed budget would include a $66 per year property tax increase, tacked on as a separate category to the $584 tax bill that homeowner currently receives.

Many of the speakers were students and employees bused in from the community college to speak about the programs and services the school provides. Officials from the school said that many sacrifices have beenmade over the years to balance the budget, including cuts to health benefits for faculty and staff and many eliminated programs.

“We have watched, without any certainty of what kind of funding we’re going to get either from the state or the county, lead- ing us to have to lean on the third tier of funding, which is tuition,” said HaroldHalbert, president of the faculty union at the college.

However, the increase in funding Montgomery County Community College only covers about a quarter of the increased revenue expected from the county’s tax increase, Republican Commissioner Joe Gale pointed out.

“In truth, less than onefourth of the revenue generated from this tax is actually new, additional funding for the community college. In previous budgets, funding for the community collegewas taken out of the operating budget,” Gale said. “Last year, $18 million was allocated to the community college. This proposed tax removes the expense of the community college out of the operating budget and shifts the burden onto the taxpayers.”

Approximately $3million of the revenue projected will be used for raises for nonunion employees. The budget also includes a $6 million contribution to the fund balance, increased debt service payments and a several million dollar loss in state revenue, according to Chief Financial Officer Dean Dortone.

The proposed increase comes just one year after a nearly 10 percent hike on taxes in the 2016 county budget, though no residents spoke at the budget hearings held for the 2016 budget. Thursday’s hear- ings stood in stark contrast to last year’s, as people stood in the doorways of themeeting roomin One Montgomery Plaza once all of the seats were filled.

Some of the critics of the increase focused on how the hike would impact seniors living on a fixed income. Others singled out the funding for the community college in their comments during the hearing.

“My question to everyone in this room is, what’s the fair value for our seniors?” Ken Christovich said. “It comes off their dinner table, it comes from gifts for their grandchildren, it might even come from the prescription medication.”

While few members of the public who were not there in support of the college spoke in favor of the proposed budget, the recently retired director of communications for the county, Frank Custer, provided his insight into why he supports the work being done with tax dollars.

“If I have a heart attack or a stroke, and it’s going to take the ambulance an extra 10 or 15 minutes to get to me because the bridge is closed, I’ll pay the extra $66,” he said.

While Gale spoke out publicly against the budget, he could not specify where inthe budget cuts should be made. He instead suggested that department heads would be better suited to decide where to trim their own budgets.

Dortone countered that months of planning had gone into the process of crafting the budget, including extensive conversations with department heads.

“The process that we went through as a senior management team took months andmonths of work over the summer and we spentmany, many hours going through fine detail and scrutinizing expenses less than $500,” he said.

Not all of those depart- ment heads received the funding for which they had hoped. District Attorney Kevin Steele appeared at the hearing to make an impassioned plea for more money for the salaries of prosecutors on his staff, stating that it fell far below similar positions in other counties.

“I am trying to recruit and retain the best people. I have lost a number of people and will lose more,” Steele said. “I lost a captain of one of our units who was sleeping on a friend’s couch because he couldn’t get by on what we were paying him.”

The proposed budget is available online on the county’s website for review. Commissioners will continue to consider public input on the budget until it is voted on at the Dec. 15 meeting of the board of commissioners.