By Adam Pagnucco.
Back in 2005, County Council Members Tom Perez and Marilyn Praisner put together a task force of county agencies to “identify the types of infrastructure most in need of substantial maintenance or replacement and the resources needed to address them.” The result was the first report of the Infrastructure Maintenance Task Force. That was the first report of nine, with the most recent one issued in February 2024. And the story these reports tell is this:
The county’s infrastructure maintenance costs are exploding, far faster than county budgets, consumer prices or economic growth. And the county appears to have no plan to pay for them.
The reports are tough reading. They consist of a group of line items for four large county agencies: Montgomery County Government (MCG), MCPS, Montgomery College and Park and Planning. Each line item identifies a maintenance category, describes its capacity, lists an acceptable average annual replacement cost, looks at what is being paid in the most recent budget and then identifies a backlog amount. It takes a bit of work, but you can total up all of these items and figure out the county’s best estimate of maintenance backlog.
In 2005, the total backlog was $611 million.
In 2020, the total backlog was $2.46 billion.
In 2024, the total backlog was $3.85 billion.
The table below breaks out those costs by agency. Note that Park and Planning did not report its costs in 2005.
Among the more interesting bits in these reports are their comparisons of acceptable average annual replacement cost – in other words, the cost of maintaining the infrastructure – and what is contained in the most recent budget. The gaps are often vast.
For example, according to the 2024 report, the acceptable average annual replacement cost of county government building HVAC and electrical systems is $12.6 million. The county is currently budgeting just $2.95 million a year. The backlog was $144.75 million. Four years earlier, the backlog was $44 million.
What will the backlog be in the next report?
There are dozens of items like this, folks.
Now these numbers are admittedly rough. The 2005 report did not contain many estimates and had no data at all for Park and Planning. And I bet different engineers could calculate different measures on many, perhaps all, of these things.
But what is clear is that the growth in these costs is astronomical and affects every function of county government: schools, transportation facilities, parks, the college and MUCH more.
Just consider how the growth in these costs compares to a number of budgetary and economic measures.
Between 2005 and 2024, the infrastructure backlog grew by 530%. Let’s treat that with a grain of salt – because so much data was missing in 2005, perhaps the true growth was more like three or four times.
Over the same period, the county’s operating budget grew by 103% and its six-year capital budget grew by 139%. Lots of growth, yes, but far less than the maintenance backlog.
From 2005 through the first nine months of 2024, the local consumer price index grew by 55%. So while inflation is a factor in these growing costs, there is a lot more going on.
From 2005 through 2022, the personal income of county residents grew by 68%. And from 2005 through 2024, the county had almost no growth in total payroll employment.
That means the infrastructure backlog is growing FAR faster than our tax base.
I get why county leaders neglect this need. No interest group endorses them because a roof gets replaced on a police station. No awards get handed out when a guard rail gets fixed. And no voter goes out of their way to find out which elected official funded a new elevator cab in the executive office building.
But the quality of infrastructure is directly connected to the quality of public services and the living standards of county residents. And if these reports are to be believed, those standards are being steadily eroded.
Is there any way out?