By Adam Pagnucco.
Previously, we have discussed revenue sources in County Executive Marc Elrich’s FY26 recommended operating budget, including his property tax increase, gigantic solid waste fee increase and other rises in property and income tax collections. Now let’s discuss how he would like to spend the new half billion dollars in his budget.
First, Elrich’s budget is merely a recommendation. The county council can add and subtract to it subject to state mandates (like the Maintenance of Effort law on school funding) and the requirement that debt not be used for operating spending. However, the council’s modifications are rarely earth-shaking and the budget is one of the most definitive statements on the executive’s priorities for county government. It’s worth analyzing, both over the short term and the long term.
The table below shows one-year increases for each of the county’s major departments and agencies.
Recycling and resource management is the runaway leader in growth, anchored by the gigantic fee increase mentioned above. That fee increase would raise the county’s systems benefits charge, which funds the county’s solid waste and recycling programs, by 31% on residential properties and roughly double on commercial properties. The council must approve that fee increase for it to take effect.
Another winner is the county executive’s office, which would receive a $988,677 (14.2%) increase. It’s not because of new positions, which would only grow by half a full-time equivalent (FTE). The reason is huge salary increases. The average salary per FTE in the executive’s office would grow from $129,740 in FY25 to $152,090 in FY26, a 17.2% increase. That FAR exceeds the rather generous increases negotiated by the county employee unions.
Should taxpayers be paying an increase in taxes while these officials take this large of a salary increase?
MCPS is a big winner. Its county contribution would increase by $250 million (11.7%) in Elrich’s budget. Its total budget would rise by $299 million (9.0%).
Assuming that the council adopts Elrich’s recommendation for MCPS, it will receive a historically huge three-year boost. Over the FY23-26 period, MCPS’s total budget will grow by 24% and its county contribution will grow by 29% despite a drop in enrollment. That’s the largest three-year increase in MCPS’s total budget since the FY00-03 period. It’s also the largest three-year increase in the county contribution to MCPS since the FY88-91 period! Let no one say that MCPS is being cut or is starving. The data says otherwise – decisively.
Let’s summarize the above table in five broad categories. Education is MCPS and Montgomery College. Transportation is the county’s parking districts, Ride On and the transportation department’s operating budget. Public safety is animal services, consumer protection, correction, emergency management, fire and rescue, police, sheriff and state’s attorney. Debt service is used to pay off the county’s bonds, which are used for the capital budget. And everything else is, well… everything else. The table below shows growth in those categories.
Education is the winner because of MCPS. But no one else (other than perhaps Wall Street bond traders) is a loser. This budget, anchored by a half-billion dollars in new revenues, provides more money to almost everything. I worked at the county council during the latter part of the Great Recession. County Executive Ike Leggett and the council of that time would have loved to have a budget like this one.
Next: budget increases over the medium term.