The fiscal year 2011 budget which Harford County David Craig will submit Wednesday is set to decrease spending by 5 percent over last year’s plan and will include no furloughs and no layoffs for county employees, Craig said today.
The proposed budget will also include $2.7 million above the school board’s budget request “to be used by the board of education for employees.” The Harford County Board of Education had earlier sent a budget request to the county that included an across-the-board salary cut of nearly 2 percent for all school system employees.
Craig announced details of his proposed budget at a press conference in Bel Air. He is scheduled to send his proposed budget to the Harford County Council on Wednesday.
Craig said the additional $2.7 million for school employees came from savings within the county budget. County officials later identified the savings as the result of reduced personnel costs, including a retirement incentive accepted by 53 county employees, which will allow for some positions to be consolidated or eliminated.
The extra $2.7 million won’t be enough to fully reverse the salary cuts for school employees, which total approximately $4.8 million according to school officials. Craig suggested that if the school board could find matching funds within their budget, then no county or board of education employee would face furloughs or salary cuts next year. “That’s our intent,” Craig said.
The Harford County Board of Education will meet Thursday to amend their budget to reflect the extra $2.7 million, plus $300,000 more that Craig said would be used toward a planned agricultural magnet program at North Harford High School. Craig said his budget would also include the state-required maintenance of effort funding for the schools of approximately $147,000.
Harford Schools Superintendent Robert Tomback said he couldn’t say for certain that the additional funds would go to employees, because such decisions reside with the school board and salaries are also subject to pending collective bargaining agreements. But Tomback said he appreciated the cooperation between the county executive, the county council and the school system, adding, “We’re on the same team.”
Craig said the additional $2.7 million for school employees came from savings within the county budget. County officials later identified the savings as the result of reduced personnel costs, including a retirement incentive accepted by 53 county employees, which will allow for some positions to be consolidated or eliminated.
How come it has taken Craig so long to come up with these cuts? What were these employees doing all this time? What over cuts are available? Where are the cuts to JESSE BANE’S BLOATED BUDGET?
braveheart-the people that took the retirement option were good employees of the county that did their job, probably settled for less money and provided a needed service for the county. Just because some positions are being eliminated, that does not mean that they werent’ doing anything, it really means that the remaining workforce will have to do more work with less money or just delay current service levels to meet the reduced workforce levels. Foe example, some depts are doing without clerical staff, as secretaries retire and no new clerks are being hired, that means that other people will have to do their own correspondence, appointments, and phone duty (afterall, citizens want to be heard when they call for a need). These new duties will have to be done while other duties such as inspections, hearings, or compliance will have to wait while they do clerial stuff that someone else was doing for them when the position was filled.
A drop in revenues and tax receipts coupled with recent decreases in taxes have forced the county to spend less on labor costs, while that is a good thing, it won’t really make many jobs more efficient as people can only do their job for less than 8 hrs per day as they have to now sit at reception, file, write, and do other people’s jobs that are no longer being filled which is not the same as being needed.
braveheart-the county executive has no power over staffing levels a the Sheriff’s office as it is a state office on its own. Just like with the school board, the county executive can’t tell them how to spend their funds.
Cisco – You are misinformed. The Harford County Executive has authority over the Harford County Sheriff’s Dept. Problem is Craig and Bane are in bed together. They are both liberal spenders. Bane likes to throw money at problems just to keep his troops happy. Bane shows little leadership and absolutely no fiscal restraint.
Braveheart, you are right and wrong, the Sheriff’s Office funding comes through and from the County’s budget. So, the County Executive has the ability to modify the Sheriff’s spending and could have Sheriff Bane (HCSO) share in the cost cutting efforts of the County. Several HCSO members, including a sleepy union President, are being allowed to take advantage of the early out – sick leave pay out, but the Agency as a whole is escaping the cuts. Bane’s biggest problem is that even without being impacted in their pockets, his deputies and many command staff members are fed up with his lack of leadership (you were right on the mark there).
Aside from the budget influence, the Sheriff is an elected position and a constitutional office. The Sheriff answers to no one but the voters and this is something we are going to see clearly this November as another liberal incumbent is ousted from office.
Braveheart–I have to agree and disagree with your comment. The County Ex has no authority over staffing of the Sheriff’s Office. Why else would the Sheriff be hiring people who have not gone through proper channels to apply, hire back almost everyone who has recently retired, hire friends, etc. Do a little research to see how many positions Bane has “created” to suit himself since he’s been in office. Bane does throw money at what he perceives to be problems, but that does not at all keep the troops happy. He is a true liberal Democrat who throws his money into “programs” which do absolutely nothing to increase manpower on the streets which in turn does nothing for the citizens of Harford County. But it does show that he is a compassionate man spending all of our money on worthless nonsense while people are shooting heroin at Annie’s Playground in Fallston, not Edgewood! He needs to join the Peace Corps. I do wholeheartedly agree that Bane & Craig are scratching each other’s backs. They are both totally out of control with thumbing their noses at us and doing whatever they damn well please.
The county budget will be discussed at the county council meetings. If you don’t like the money that is being alloted for different depts., call and tell the council to cut the budget and the how it impacts you when the budget is as high as it is. The govt. is of and by the people, not to or at the people, if you take no action, you, as a citizen, will suffer the consequences of the active.
People tell me it does no good, they are mistaken. The TEA parties we had last year about the budget did impact the property tax rate. The TEA party rally influenced Del. Kratovil’s no vote on the health care bill.
I urge you all to check out the budget that County Exec. Craig proposed to the council, it has a lot of fluff that ought to be deleted, but only the council has that authority. It is posted on the county gov. page. How many parks and rec facilities does this county need? How many county employees are needed? How many days should each library be open and for how long? How many fire houses does the county need? Where and why? How many cars do the housing inspectors, electrical inspectors, dept. heads need and why? When I go to work, I drive my own car. I am unable to park for free in the town of Bel Air, I must feed the meters, and I do understand that. Why do the county employees that drive county vehicles, not pay for the spaces they use to park the county owned vehicles? The county has employees that work within the county, and live elsewhere, and drive the county cars to this county for work within the county and then drive elsewhere to there homes with the county owned vehicles. How much does it cost to insure the vehicles and drivers, and maintain the vehicles with tags, repairs and why? The perks of working for the county gov’t exceed the benefits for the county tax payers. I question the number of employees and the purposes of said employees. I do not begrudge the county employees their jobs, I am curious as to what they are being paid to do and why. I think that the staff that was furloughed last year for five days was less impacted by those days than the higher property taxes that they were required to pay here in Harford county or by the higher fees for h20/sewer, trash and road tolls and higher court costs or traffic violation fees.
Toby-you have a lot of questions, I suggest that you attend the working hearings at the council and find out answers to all your questions.
Braveheart-The Sheriff’s office submitts a budget to the executive and he does his best to give him what he is requesting which is his share of the county’s revenues. The executive branch has no power over any expenditure in the Sheriff’s office. The same thing happens with the judicial branch.
the reason why they are shooting heroin at annies playground is BANE has neglected the rest of the County is more concerned with the people in SLUDGEWOOD(EDGEWOOD)even though it is not better down there.
Braveheart, Dave and Toby:
Toby, your comments of funding the Sheriff’s Office are the closest. The Office of Sheriff is an elected position and is required by State law to be funded by the county. The County Executive and County Council work in concert on each budget submitted to them. They decide how much money the Sheriff will recieve. At no point during the fiscal year can any other elected official tell the Sheriff how to spend the monies alloted to him for his operation. Once the money is allocated, nothing can be done to reverse the allocation. The County Executive and County Council can only ask the Sheriff to refund, or turn money back to the County Treasurer. Historically, any money not spent by the Sheriff at the end of each fiscal year has always been returned to the County General Fund. I do not know if the incumbent Sheriff has followed suit since he won the election in 2006. It is my understanding that the incumbent Sheriff has spent a lot of our taxpayer monies in a wasteful manner.
As for the hiring practices of civilian employees, the Sheriff is suppose to abide by the same rules that govern all county agencies, as set forth by the Harford County Department of Human Resources. Again, it is my understanding that the incumbent Sheriff has not followed these rules on several occasions.