Facing lower than expected revenue projections and a sluggish economy, Harford County Executive David R. Craig has requested that designated county departments and agencies return 3% of their county operating funding for the current fiscal year, according to Robert Thomas, spokesman for the county executive. The action, Thomas said, was to ensure a balanced budget in the current 2011 fiscal year and that a similar request was made in FY10.
The 3% giveback to the General Fund from county departments and outside agencies totals $5.7 million so far, including funds expected from Harford County Public Schools, the Health Department, Harford County Public Library and Harford Community College, but does not yet include a dollar amount from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. County Budget Chief Kim Spence explained:
“The Sheriff was not excluded from the give-back. In order to ensure that public safety programs currently in place will not be put in jeopardy, we will wait until closer to the end of the fiscal year to determine the amount that could be returned. The Sheriff usually returns fund[s] each fiscal year.”
The giveback from Harford County Public Schools will be less than the requested amount, due to the state’s maintenance of effort requirement for public schools. To keep Harford County in compliance with the requirement, HCPS will give back nearly $3 million instead of the full 3%, which would have totaled $6.2 million.
Within Harford County Government, no furloughs or other cuts to salaries are part of the giveback, so county departments where budgets consist only of personnel costs did not return funds, according to Spence. She also said that the departmental budget cuts came from a number of different line items, including supplies.
Below is a breakdown of the dollar amount of the giveback to the county General Fund for all affected departments and agencies:
Harford County Citizens: This is a warning! Hide your purses and wallets!
joan-being proactive by asking depts to give back 3% means to you to hide your wallet? Does the article imply that higher taxes are in the offing? Clearly, while you are a respected business person in this county, the fact is that you are one loose cannon.
I am sure many would agree that if your funding/budget for next year is process and your projections show less revenue the right thing to do is to ask everyone to reduce expenses ahead of time…sounds like effective fiscal planning to me.
The CE will present his budget for the upcoming 11/12 year by April 1st and the county needs to approve it by late May and the budget would take effect on july 1st. At this time there is some uncertainty regarding layoffs/furloughs or allocations to different depts. We know that HCPS is asking for millions more in funding to pay for pay increases that they negotiated with their respective unions even though they don’t have a clear number on what kind of funds the county will provide the school system. A new administration building and the council building will have to be addressed as well as consolidation of all county offices scattered all over Bel Air which cost the tax payers hundreds of thousands yearly even though many of these buildings would not have a comparable use for any other business in the county they keep receiving high rental rates which should be renegotiated to reduce the cost to the taxpayer.
Well said “FRANKLY SPEAKING”. For what it’s worth, I concur 100%.
And Joan Ryder, you should be ashamed! Just because your boy Robert Wagner lost to David Craig doesn’t mean that you should try to send folks into “panic mode” everytime David Craig takes action on an issue. In this case, he is obviously doing the right thing! Why don’t you just stick to your “profession” and continue to extort your exorbitant take from hard working folks trying to sell their homes (you’re much better at that!)
If you want to sell your real estate you can sell it without a licensed agent/broker, you could hire a discount licensed agent/broker or negotiate Joan Ryder’s commission.
You see Joan is a capitalist and part of what’s left of our free market system where people rely om themselves for their income.
20 cents more per gallon, thanks to the gas tax and David Craig SUPPORTS the increase. He was among a small group of county execs – Howard, PG, Montgomery, Balto, Harf, A.A and Mayor Rawlings Blake appearing before the MD Gen Assembly urging passage of the tax increase.
When are these gumbas gonna get the fact we are at our financial ends now. It’s time to cut not keep raising taxes. Republican? maybe, but it’s only a name without much meaning in Harford.
Umm, I think you got your facts wrong there BELAIRFED. All the stories I read about the gas tax increase said that Craig strongly opposes the increase. I was happy to see that our County Exec was NOT part of the group that went to Annapolis to lobby for it. You might want to go back and check wherever you saw that.
Hey Bull Moose,
What did the March 1, 2011 Sun article mean when it listed Leopold, Craig, and Kamenentz there but not testifying. It sure read to me like they were there to support it, just not testifying.
Craig, Leopold, and Kamenetz did not testify because they were not there. Craig opposes the gas tax increase, as has been reported in other articles. I don’t know whether Leopold and Kamenetz also oppose the increase, or if they just didn’t want to testify in favor. But I’m glad that our County Exec opposes it.
Roads must be maintained and this is usually done by increasing taxes. My problem is with using the gas tax to fund other operations and then claim that more funds are needed to maintain roads. Gas taxes have not been increased in years, but doing it now in this now in a down economy would not be the smartest thing to do because it is going to decrease overall spending and dampen economic growth. I believe the CE supported a dedicated fund for roads and not money that can be transferred to other depts or used in the general fund. I believe the CE has used a steady hand to handle the county’s needs vs. its revenues. I like the fact that he doesn’t play TEA bagger politics.