Thursday, February 7, 2013
Notable outcomes include eased regulations for accessory apartments, passing of the disabled hiring bill and evaluation of potential affordable housing locations.
The Montgomery County Council met Tuesday, Feb. 5. Notable outcomes from the meeting include: County Eases Rules for Accessory Apartments The Montgomery County Council passed a zoning amendment and bill Tuesday that will make it easier for homeowners to add an accessory apartment to a single-family home, The Washington Examiner reported. After almost 10 years of policy discussion, homeowners who want to add a small apartment for an aging parent, a caretaker or a renter can now do so in 90 to 110 days, versus a process that previously took a minimum of five to six months, The Washington Post reported. Residents opposed to the change were concerned it might lead to overcrowding of neighborhood schools, according to The Washington Post, but "…
Friday, February 24, 2012
The council says one year of pensions equals the cost of nearly 500 county jobs.
Montgomery County Councilmembers are the latest in a growing list of officials opposing Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan to shift half the cost of teacher pensions to the state’s counties. In a Feb. 23 statement from the council, members said the shift, which councilmembers said would cost $47 million in the next budget year, could devastate county services. “How much is $47 million? It pays for the jobs of nearly 500 teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other vital county personnel,” reads the statement. “It is more than the county's general fund budgets for housing, transportation, and environmental protection combined. Our entire budget for libraries is less than $30 million.” The statement echoed Council President Roger Berliner’s …
Thursday, February 16, 2012
MCPS and the County Council are optimistic heading into budget season.
After weathering years of contentious debate and a threatened lawsuit, leaders of Montgomery County Public Schools and the County Council say they're ready to move on and work together to serve students during trying economic times. Members of the council and the Board of Education took questions from parents during Wednesday's Montgomery County Council of PTAs forum at Richard Montgomery High School, discussing the coming budget debate and the county's economic state. County Councilmember Marc Elrich said he's optimistic the two groups can put their past disagreements behind them, and he has been impressed with new Superintendent Joshua Starr's commitment to reason and transparency. "The tenor of the relationship has really changed," …
Effects of shift would devastate county budgets, executives say.
Leaders of counties from around Maryland said a plan to shift part of the cost of teacher pensions from the state would have serious consequences for the budgets of local governments. Nearly two dozen leaders from counties around the state, all members of the Maryland Association of Counties, met in Annapolis on Wednesday to show their opposition to Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to shift to local governments. Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner said his county is already dealing with a budget deficit of its own. "None of us up here are oblivious to the challenges the state faces in balancing its budget and its structural deficit," said Beliner, a Democrat. "We know because we've been doing it for years and years and years now…
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The County Council's Public Safety Committee unanimously endorsed the idea.
Drivers who don't stop for children getting off of school buses could soon face a fine of up to $250 under a bill moving through the County Council. The council's Public Safety Committee unanimously recommended the bill at its meeting Thursday, and the issue will go before the full council as early as Feb. 7. The bill, introduced by County Councilmember Valerie Ervin, does not specify a cost, fine amount or number of cameras. Instead, it authorizes Montgomery County Police to consult with the Board of Education on a plan to install cameras on certain buses. Councilmember Phil Andrews, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said the county has issued more than 1,200 citations over the past three years for failure to stop at a bus crossing…
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Navarro approved as vice president.
The Montgomery County Council elected Councilmember Roger Berliner as its next president on Tuesday, choosing Councilmember Nancy Navarro as vice president. Berliner, who succeeds outgoing Council President Valerie Ervin, said Montgomery County's work to regain fiscal stability is not yet done, and that the county will face budgetary, transportation and environmental challenges in the future. "If we are to meet these challenges, we will have to meet the hardest of them all: becoming change agents rather than servants of the status quo," he said. "We need to introduce new words into our county’s business model, words like nimble, bold, entrepreneurial." Navarro, who represents District 4, is the county's first Hispanic female vice …
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Cuts are within the council's authority, the state school board said on the eve of today's final vote.
Update, 11:28 a.m.: The Montgomery County Council approved the $4.4 billion fiscal 2012 operating budget in a unanimous vote on Thursday morning. Click here for budget details. Original post, 6 a.m.: On the eve of the Montgomery County Council’s final vote on the county budget, the state Board of Education ruled on Wednesday that the council was within its authority to reduce spending on county schools. The board’s 7-1 vote added legitimacy to an action that council President Valerie Ervin called the “biggest decision” county lawmakers made regarding the $4.4 billion fiscal 2012 operating budget. Last month, the county decided not to apply for a waiver from a state funding requirement that counties' per pupil spending on schools be at the …
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Restructuring government and benefits costs is part of a county budget that reflects "a new normal," the executive said.
Montgomery County must “use these tough times to define a new normal,” County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said Tuesday as he outlined an operating budget proposal that seeks to close a $300 million gap by slashing 216 county jobs, tapping county employees to bear more of the cost of their benefits and rejecting the school system's request for more county aid. Under the $4.35 billion plan for fiscal 2012, which begins July 1, county taxpayers would likely see a slight increase in property taxes, which are held at the county charter limit—the rate of inflation plus the value of new construction. The budget must be approved by the County Council by June 1. The proposal does not include employee furloughs and avoids the elimination of another …
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Members of the Board of Education, some County Council members and Superintendent Jerry Weast discussed priorities for dealing with the operating budget in fiscal year 2012.
Patience will be crucial to Montgomery County Public Schools in the coming months as the district anticipates how to tackle budget woes and accommodate more than 3,300 new students, said Jerry Weast at the annual operating budget meeting hosted by the Montgomery County Council of PTAs on Monday evening. "We don't know how bad it is or how bad it's going to be," Weast said. "We will do everything we can to minimize damage, but there will be damage." Weast, school board members and several Montgomery County Council members explained their priorities and plans for the fiscal year 2012 operating budget, which Weast proposed to be $2.16 billion in December. Weast's recommendation includes no new programs, initiatives or cost-of-living …
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Only a week ago, union chief passionately opposed the measure
Montgomery County Council members voted to make it easier Tuesday for the county to win contract disputes with organized labor without a peep from the union leaders who just a week earlier accused the council of turning its back on working people. The measure, unanimously approved, would require an impartial arbitrator to first consider the county's ability to pay for any contract improvements before reviewing other factors, such as wages in neighboring areas when there's an impasse during collective bargaining. Council President Valerie Ervin, a former union organizer, said the legislation "levels the playing field" for contract negotiations that go to arbitration. Arbitrators have sided with labor union proposals in 12 out of the 17 …
Maria Fusco
1:11 pm on Sunday, February 26, 2012
What does this statement mean? "The governor included millions of dollars in increased taxes to offset the cost.... Local governments would also not be required to repay about $370 million in an income tax fund." If it goes through, passes, do we get a tax break (larger amount)? What is timing/ schedule of the tax break? Are we "trading?" And if this is a trade, will counties have control over … more ›