For Immediate Release: Friday, May 12, 2017
Montgomery Council to review
FY18 budget request of MCPS
Also on Monday, May 15: BRT plan for
U.S. Route 29 corridor,
budgets for Arts and Humanities,
National Philharmonic,
Park and Planning, Consumer Protection
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 12, 2017—The Montgomery County Council at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 12, is scheduled to review the Fiscal Year 2018 operating budget request of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The worksession is part of the Council’s review of County Executive Ike Leggett’s recommended FY18 operating budget.
The Council will be entering its final week of worksession on the budget. It is scheduled to reach agreement on the budget on Thursday, May 18, and to formally adopt the budget on Thursday, May 25. The budget will go into effect on July 1.
The Council’s session will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The morning and afternoon sessions 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 Board of Education requested a total of $2.52 billion for the FY18 MCPS operating budget. This represents an increase of $64.2 million (2.6 percent) compared to the FY 17 approved budget. The FY18 tax supported budget request is $2.37 billion, an increase of 2.7 percent over the FY17 amount.
The Board requested a local contribution that is $25.7 million above the State-mandated Maintenance of Effort (MOE) level for FY18. The required MOE contribution for FY18 is $1.64 billion, an increase of $28.1 million over the FY17 approved total County contribution due to enrollment increases. The Board's requested a local contribution of $1.671 billion.
The Board's request includes $58.6 million for the local contribution to State retirement for teachers, as required by the General Assembly in 2012.
The Board's request includes an additional 103.8 full-time employees over the approved FY17 level, for a total of 22,284.3. The increase is primarily in teacher positions (91.2).
The Board projects a total enrollment of 161,302 for FY18. This is an increase of 2,292 over the actual FY17 enrollment. Comparing enrollment projections (which affect the budget changes year to year), the FY18 budget projection is an increase of 2,286 over the budgeted FYI7 level. Enrollment of students with Limited English Proficiency is projected to increase by 500, for a total of 23,150 students for FY18.
The Council’s Education Committee has recommended that $2.1 million be placed on the budget Reconciliation List for MCPS. This amount represents the difference between the Board's request and the Executive's recommendation after accounting for the additional fund balance resources.
As part of the afternoon session, the Council will continue its discussions regarding 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. This concept would be improved if the BRT buses were to be in a mechanically-guided busway.
A consistent comment at the public hearing on the project regards opposition to a station at Fenton Street in Downtown Silver Spring. It was noted that the buildings there are relatively close to the sidewalks, and that the sidewalks are not wide enough to accommodate the high-level platforms that are part of the BRT's design. Others stated that there did not need to be a second stop in the Central Business District, and that an additional stop would increase the travel time for patrons destined to the Metro and the transit center.
The Council staff agrees that Fenton Street is not an appropriate location for a BRT station given the physical constraints there. However, there should be a second station in the vicinity to serve employment east of Georgia Avenue. If the BRT goes only to the transit center, it is unlikely that many employees working east of Georgia Avenue would backtrack on foot to their workplaces.
The budget for the Arts and Humanities Council will be addressed during the morning session. Specifically, the Council will discuss a proposed $150,000 to help operations of the Rockville-based National Philharmonic. The Council’s Health and Human Services Committee was sharply divided when it discussed the proposal on May 3 and did not provide a committee recommendation. At the meeting, HHS Committee Chair George Leventhal recommended that National Philharmonic receive $100,000 in funding, a $50,000 reduction from the County Executive's recommendation. This would bring the total County contribution to National Philharmonic to $500,000 between Fiscal Years 2016-18.Council President Roger Berliner recommended that the Council approve $150,000 in funding for the National Philharmonic in FY18. Councilmember Craig Rice did not recommend approval of the $150,000 in funding for the National Philharmonic, due to the Council policy to not provide earmarks.
During the morning session, the Council will review the budget request of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which includes tax supported funds, self-supporting funds, debt service and reserves. The tax-supported funds--the administration fund and the parks fund--represent the lion's share of the operating budgets. The Commission's FY18 budget request is $170.1 million, excluding the capital projects fund. The appropriation required to support the operating budget is $161.4 million. While this number is up sharply from the FY17 adopted budget, the Capital Projects Fund is also down sharply versus FY17, meaning that the overall change in both sources and uses of funds is modest.
During the morning session, the Council also will review the budget request of the Office of Consumer Protection. During the recession, the department had eight significant positions abolished. Over the past several years, some staffing has been restored, with the addition of one investigator, one patient advocate and one part-time administrative aide position. OCP again lost an investigator position in FY17 with the transfer of the Commission on Common Ownership Communities to the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
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Release ID: 17-165