The attached letter was submitted Tuesday to the Harford County Council by County Executive David R. Craig regarding his decision to withdraw legislation pertaining to the second part of a one-time pay bonus for county employees, teachers, support staff of the Harford County Public Schools and others:
May 22, 2012
The Honorable William K. Boniface
Harford County Council
18 Office Street
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
Re: Withdrawal of Bills 12-21 (County Employees Special Pays), 12-22 (HCPS Employees Special Pays), and 12-23 (HCPS Teachers Special Pays)
Council President Boniface and Members of the County Council,
As you are aware, during the recent Special Session of the Maryland General Assembly, legislators passed a Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act that included a shift of teacher pension obligations previously funded by the state to county governments. This new obligation is in addition to our Maintenance of Effort obligation. For Harford County, this means an additional $5.5 million expense for Fiscal Year 2013.
In order to pay for this new obligation, I respectfully ask that bills 12-21, 12-22, and 12-23 be withdrawn. This is not an action which I take lightly, but given the difficult position in which the Governor and the General Assembly have placed us, this is the most prudent course of action to take. By paying for teacher pensions using our fund balance, we are able to avoid furloughs, layoffs, cuts in services, or an increase in the property or income tax rates.
As I stated in October when I initially proposed a one-time bonus, all employees – whether county employees, school system employees, or employees of other county agencies – have been forced to make significant sacrifices and to do more with less in these difficult economic times. Therefore, I felt strongly that a portion of our unanticipated fund balance from Fiscal Year 2011 should go to all employees equally. I am glad that we were able to work together with our public employee unions and with the Board of Education to get the first round of bonuses into employees’ hands.
Despite suggestions from some that we only withdraw the bonuses for school system employees to pay for teacher pensions and allow the bill regarding bonuses for employees of county government to remain, I stand by my position that all employees should be treated equally. Therefore I am withdrawing all three bills.
I look forward to working with you and the members of the County Council to develop a long-term plan to deal with this new burden, which has been thrust upon county government and local taxpayers by a state government that would rather pass their problems to someone else than make the hard decisions to fix the problems it has created.
Cordially,
David R. Craig
Harford County Executive
DRC/bl
Cc: Members of the Harford County Council
Director of Administration Mary F. Chance
County Attorney Rob McCord
County Treasurer Kathryn Hewitt
Chief of Staff Aaron Tomarchio
Legislative Liaison Nancy Giorno
Chief of Budget & Management Research Kim Spence
Manager of Communications Robert B. Thomas
Thanks Mr Craig for getting our hopes up to only pull the rug out from under us!! We have scrimped and scraped and done with out for 3+ years now and there is no way that you could find to reward us hardworking county employees with a little bonus? Please!!! I bet though your family hasnt had to do without vacations or trips to amusement parks or has had to try to find a second job to supplement their income due to not recieving any raises or steps in the last several years with the price of everything increasing. Just remember us county employees when you are sitting on the beach on your vacation while your hard working county employees are having to do without ONCE AGAIN!!!
Frustrated,
Your gripe is with O’Malley, Miller and Busch plus their following in the state senate and house of delegates who assisted them. They continue to collect the tax money at the state level that would have paid for pensions but have sent the bill to the counties. The counties were faced with which bill to pay – your bonus or your pension. They chose your pension. As Paul says, have a nice day.
Its not my pension..I am not a teacher.
I don’t think it was O’Malley’s request to stiff the honest workers out of there bonuses. You must work for Craig. Craig blames everyone but the person who withdrew the bonuses. (himself)
Thanks again Craig.
Mike, how do you propose the county pay the $5.5 million bill the state just sent? Tax increases or layoffs, which do you prefer?
Maybe the 96.8 Million in the general fund balance left in surplus from the last 5 years?
Sarah,
Are you Craig’s sister or something, O’malley just said there wasn’t any 5.5 million dollar tax bill sent to Craig’s office. So which one of the them is lying….Craig or O’Malley??
It is $1.7 million for next year.
Mike and Ryan, you both might want to actually read SB 1301, instead of relying on your daily newsletter from O’Malley. Look it up. Page 33.
I sure hope Burbey isn’t a math teacher. Yet again he’s using incorrect figures. Sarah is quite right. And while it is true that the state has enacted so-called “offsets,” those are estimates, and in the opinion of most financial observers highly optimistic.
The one number in all of this that is firm is the $5.5 million that the county must send to the Board of Ed, who must then send to the Pension System.
No, Mike, I don’t work for Craig and I’m not related to him. You need to read the language in the bill as Sarah suggests and stop believing what the HCEA and MOM tell you. Also, the first bonus was vociferously rejected by HCEA who did everything in their power to stop it from being paid unless they first got their say. That is fully documented in the direct quotes from Cerveny and Burbey all over Dagger and elsewhere. What part of ‘fat cat white Republican’ makes you most angry? Is it white or Republican? The County just gave the teachers $5.5 million dollars that the County didn’t budget as a contribution to the teacher pension fund. That would be thanks to O’Malley. The same O’Malley who, according to the Washington Post, a liberal supporting newspaper, has spent as much time running the Democratic governor’s conference as he has actually governing the people of the State of Maryland who are paying his salary and expenses. Never mind the amount of time he travels to support the Obama campaign. I guess I really shouldn’t complain. Just think of how much more damage he could do if he were actually there when he is supposed to be rather than part-time.
Sir: How about you cancel your plans to attend 1 of 2 conventions? I’m sure that will help pay for some of the bonuses. And how about parking the county vehicles that are driven for personal use? That should add to the coffers. Seriously, there are plenty of ways to throw the county workers a bone. I know many county employees who weren’t counting on the bonus, knowing full well that you’d probably yank the rug out from under them, but were hoping to get one so they could take their families on vacation or to an amusement park this year. You go hide in your vacation condo at the beach while the rest of the employees suffer. You should be ashamed of yourself, but obviously you don’t care. Now here’s a thought–giving the county employees the rest of their bonus could buy you a lot of votes in Annapolis. Now are you convinced? QUIT SCREWING THE LOWEST ON THE TOTEM POLE
It will be humorous when Craig runs for Governor and loses Harford County.
Yet, according to the presentation of the budget, nearly 5 million is being shifted into savings after covering these expenses and some other programs. More lies to help him say how much money he has saved the county as the exec for his run. Guess what, we can all save money if we don’t pay our bills and handle our business-till the reckoning comes…
He won’t run for gov. he can’t win. He will run for something like comptroller, and then maybe gov. Francot will be the next gov. he is a dem, and came out agaisnt O’Malley’s spending.
And how is coming out against spending going to get Franchot through a Democratic Primary for Governor? Democrats like spending. Gansler will wipe the floor with Franchot and Brown and then Craig.
What? Even the Dems are against O’Malley spending? How can that be? Is O’Malley that much of a spendthrift? He has repeatedly told me that all he has done is cut, cut, cut. Have I been lied to by MOM?
I think he should take the raises away from his buddys
Time for new leadership and new ideas all around. Nothing will change until then. End of discussion.
Sarah and Yates Craig just don;t get it, the money is there , its always there, Craig just screwed his people over bad, his legacy will be just another fat cat white republican who dumped idiots like sarah
Sarah and Yates Craig just don;t get it, the money is there , its always there, Craig just screwed his people over bad, his legacy will be just another fat cat white republican who duped idiots like sarah
This says to me: we can get bent over with vaseline or bent over without vaseline. But there is no money in the budget for vaseline!
The main problem is that the Schools will lose their edge. If educators are not paid their morale will drop, their they quality of teaching, then they will go elsewhere. The county will hire young inexperienced, cheap teachers. In the end the schools will not be as quality and people will not want to live there. Counties with good schools attract good citizens. Obviously, some people at the top ONLY care about THEMSELVES, and not even their children, or the children of their neighbors.
Baltimore County first year teachers with BA’s are making slightly more than Harford County 7th year teachers with the same qualifications.
If you want to get even more depressed, google Cecil County’s teacher pay and compare the two.
Craig is a coward. County employees found out the bonuses were pulled on the front page of the Aegis. Craig made a big production when he said he was giving bonuses. He had the newspapers and tv camaras there.
There was no heads up, no email to employees explaining why. He only cares about getting his name and face outside the county. What a jerk!
Have to agree….. with the first round BONUS money we got e-mail Mr.Craig was boasting loud and proud well if you look at what it is called that just about says it all…..BON-US Thanks Mr. Craig i just cannot believe you actually think you are doing whats right…no raises no steps,no colas in 4 years the one thing that kept moral up and the faith in you as a leader for the county employees a voice for us so to speak…Well Sir….YOU JUST SLOWED YOUR ROLL…Enjoy your vacations with your family,day trips to amusementt parks etc….the rest of us will work.. some in NON-AIR CONDITIONED building because the county is trying to save money so they turn the air off….put 100% work ethic into our 8 hour day because we need the money and that is what we were hired to do with the thought that WE..THE COUNTY EMPLOYEES would be well compensated for the work we do.yadayada..I know you will either ignore the comments of the people who depended on you to be our voice or you will do what MOST politicians do….BLAME THE OTHER GUY…HAVE A GREAT SUMMER
Let’s see, where did Craig’s money come from,
CLARK TURNER $4500.
WARD DEVELOPMENT $2000., $500.
ROBERT AND CRAIG WARD $2000. (isn’t there a law against this ?)
BEECHTREE PROPERTIES $4000.
GEORGE STEPHENS $1850.
RIVERSIDE CORPORATE CTR. $4000. 2560 LORD BALTIMORE DR
PARKER JOINT VENTURE $4000. 2560 LORD BALTIMORE DR
STATE COMMERCIL REALITY LLP $4000. 2560 LORD BALTIMORE DR
WHITTINGTON AVE. LLC $4000. 2560 LORD BALTIMORE DR
BENSON AVE BUSINESS CTR $4000. 2560 LORD BALTIMORE DR
AGAIN ISNT THERE A LAW…. ALL THE SAME ADDRESS
CNA INC $4000.
Our exec. is about in bed with every builder, developer in the whole damn state. Guess we know now why there isn’t money for his constituents. Folks this is just a very small sample. WE BEEN HAD !!