Budget Discussions - Friday, May 25, 2007

My second Council meeting on May 29th was a marathon discussion on the budget. It lasted over 4 ½ hours and I did not leave the Council meeting until 11:30 PM. Any more meetings like that and I will have to get some professional help as to why I decided to run for Mt. Rainier Council…just kidding.

Since I am new to Council and had not had a chance to participate in previous budget discussions I was at a disadvantage in not knowing about the background of some of the budget items.

The budget was voted on at the Work Session and now goes in front of a public meeting next Tuesday (May 29th) at which time it will be voted on by the Council after public comment.

The Council passed a balanced budget based on keeping the tax rate stable. (A tax relief proposal did pass the Council last month that will rebate a total of $10,000 to lower income Mt Rainier residents.) While we have one of the highest tax rates in Prince George’s County and our tax revenue will grow due to increasing valuations, there was no proposal to decease the tax rate. I did not initiate such action myself because I have to have a better understanding of our town’s budget and how the money is used before I can evaluate whether we have the ability to lower our tax rate.

The Council did vote to make a number of changes in the proposed budget. Money was cut from some unnecessary items (cell phones for Council members, an unused budget line for ‘Council priorities’ etc.) and added to the following categories:

1 - $12,000 was added to the budget for ‘traffic calming’ (speed bumps, etc). This was an issue a number of people raised with me when I went door to door earlier this spring. If you feel your street needs something to control speeding cars, please send me an e-mail.
2 - $4,500 was added for landscaping (for a total of $10,000)
3 - $2,000 additional for tree maintenance (for a total of $20,000)
4 - $10,000 to lease two additional police vehicles (we have a very aging fleet)
5 - $22,500 for clerical help to make sure our City Hall operates more efficiently

We also put some additional money into the contingency fund. I supported putting this money in the contingency account because we still have to negotiate a contract with the public safety union and can’t explicitly allocate the money for wages and benefits without coming to an agreement on those issues with our public safety officers.

Please feel free to e-mail me with your comments.