For Immediate Release: Monday, May 8, 2017
Montgomery Council to receive update
on overview of the budget
Also on Tuesday, May 9: Montgomery College’s FY18 operating budget;
BRT project for U.S. 29 corridor
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 8, 2017—The Montgomery County Council at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 9, is scheduled to receive a status report on revenues and expenditures as the Council nears reaching agreement on the County’s Fiscal Year 2018 operating budget.
The Council’s regular weekly session will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor earing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The morning and afternoon sessions, and two public hearings scheduled to run consecutively starting at 1:30 p.m., will be will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM). The channel can be viewed on Cable Channels 996 (high definition) and 6 (standard definition) on Comcast; Channels 1056 (HD) and 6 (SD) on RCN; and Channel 30 on Verizon.
The session also will be available live via streaming through the Council web site at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8 . The meeting will be rebroadcast starting at 9 p.m. on Friday, May 12.
Council Administrator Steve Farber and Senior Legislative Analyst Jacob Sesker will provide details to the Council on where the FY18 budget stands as the Council gets closer to Thursday, May 18—the date the Council is scheduled to reach agreement on the budget. That agreement will include changes the Council has made to County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommended operating budget. The Council is scheduled to formally vote on the budget on Thursday, May 25. The budget will go into effect on July 1.
The overview of revenues and expenditures that will be discussed on Tuesday includes a tracking report on recommendations made by the Council’s six committees over the past four weeks as they have reviewed the County Executive's recommended budget.
The report shows that committees to date have recommended reductions of $1.7 million, identified additional resources of $6.3 million and placed potential expenditures of $27.8 million on the reconciliation list. The net reconciliation list is $19.8 million.
The next status report on May 17 will reflect the Council's upcoming decisions on a wide range of issues, including the Tuesday’s budget consent calendar (which includes 69 items) and the multiple individual budgets scheduled for review on Tuesday. Additional reviews of specific program budget requests are scheduled for May 15 and May 16. The report also will reflect decisions made at the May 11 bi-county meeting with the Prince George's County Council on the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) capital and operating budgets and the bi-county elements of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission budget.
During Tuesday’s morning session, the Council also will review the FY18 budget request of Montgomery College.
The College’s Board of Trustees requested $313.7 million for all funds, an increase of $1.2 million (0.4 percent) over the FY17 approved level. The College's tax-supported request totals $265.0 million (1.3 percent) over the FY17 tax-supported level. The College's County funding request is an increase of $7.4 million over FY17.
The County Executive recommended a total of $309.3 million for the College in FY18, a decrease of $3.2 million (1.0 percent) from the FY17 approved level. The Executive's tax-supported recommendation is $260.5 million is a decrease of $1.0 million (0.4 percent) from the FY17 approved level.
The Council’s Education Committee has discussed a number of programs that would provide additional support for the College and has recommended placing $4.8 million on the reconciliation list for consideration to provide additional support.
At 1:40 p.m., the Council will discuss the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project proposed for the U.S. Route 29 corridor. It would be a 14-mile-long line between Burtonsville and the Silver Spring Metro Station.
The County Executive is proposing an FY18 appropriation of $9.5 million and an amendment to the Fiscal Years 2017-22 Capital Improvements Program for $31.5 million to fund the first stage of implementation for the line.
The Executive has proposed running BRT vehicles on the outside shoulders of U.S. 29 between Burtonsville and Industrial Parkway (except through the Briggs Chaney and Randolph Road interchanges, where they would run in mixed traffic), and in mixed traffic between Industrial Parkway and Silver Spring Metro.
The Executive proposes to use these funds to buy 14 special BRT vehicles, acquire land and to construct 18 high-level platforms with off-board fare collection at 11 station locations, to implement 10 bikeshare stations and other pedestrian and bike access improvements to stations, to install transit system signal priority along U.S. 29 and to fund associated planning and design expenses.
Four Corners resident Sean Emerson testified at a public hearing on the proposed line that the plan could be improved by creating a dedicated BRT lane between New Hampshire Avenue and Sligo Creek Parkway. His proposal relies on reducing the width of the existing general-use lanes to 10 feet (11 feet on the outside curb), leaving 22 feet in the middle for a dedicated 12-foot-wide bus lane (two lanes at Four Comers) as well as an 8-foot-wide median, and a 2-foot-wide painted strip between the BRT lane and the adjacent travel lane. Where there is a station, the 22-foot width would be used for the BRT lane and a one-sided platform. South of Sligo Creek Parkway, the BRT would appropriate one of the four peak direction lanes. North of New Hampshire Avenue, the lanes would either be in the existing median or, similar to the Executive's proposal, on the outside shoulders, where they exist.
This concept would be improved if the BRT buses were to be in a mechanically-guided busway. The buses would be outfitted with guide wheels that would have them run between two curbs.
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