For Immediate Release: Thursday, May 16, 2019
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 16, 2019—Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando made the following remarks today after the Council reached agreement on the County’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Operating Budget, the FY20 Capital Budget and amendments to the FY19-24 Capital Improvements Program. The budgets will be formally adopted by the Council on May 23.
The complete text of Councilmember Jawando’s remarks:
As we approach this final vote on the Fiscal Year 2020 budget for Montgomery County, I have a few thoughts I'd like to share with my colleagues on the County Council, with those attending from the County Executive’s administration and the public.
First, I want to thank Montgomery County Council President Nancy Navarro for her leadership and hard work throughout what is probably the busiest and most difficult time of the year. I’m new to the Council, so it is a pleasure to work with Council President Navarro, benefit from her guidance, and I congratulate her on a job well done.
Second, I would like to take a moment and both recognize and thank the budget analysts on our central County Council staff. Each of our individual Councilmember offices have capable and amazing personal staff, but it is of great comfort to know we have a team of central staff analysts who dive deep into the budget and can answer our questions. So, to those of you on that central council staff, know that I appreciate your dedication and hard work.
I want to touch on a number of my budget priorities that I am pleased received funding in this spending plan—because a budget is nothing if not a moral document. Deciding our spending priorities demonstrates what we value. To be clear, this year was not as smooth as the final product seems. We were not able to fund everything that we would want to, or everything we need for the residents of Montgomery County. The widening of the wealth gap, our changing demographics, and federal and state policies will continue to make our future budgets difficult.
But this is a good budget.
I am grateful to my colleagues for the alignment we have maintained on many Montgomery County issues that I hold as top priorities.
For example, I am excited that we have added funding to help at-risk youth through a number of programs related to our libraries, our recreation centers and our schools.
We added Friday and Saturday evening hours and programming at recreation centers in high-need areas of the County. This provides our youth a place to be safe and have fun during those critical hours on Friday and Saturday nights.
As the Council’s Lead for Libraries, I am also grateful that we were able to restore the hours cut during the Great Recession. Our libraries are not just a place to check out books, but they are job centers, media hubs and community meeting spaces.
As a child, the Long Branch Public Library helped put me on the road to learning, which helped me grow as a student and as a person. Every child who has an opportunity to walk into a library has an opportunity to learn.
Montgomery County has invested wisely into refreshing recreation centers and our libraries. I am excited that we can maximize these investments and support our communities.
We made important investments in education.
This budget has a groundbreaking commitment to early childhood programs—which a mountain of data demonstrates the return in value. Early childhood education investments have shown a return of seven dollars for every dollar invested. This will help many preschool age children who live in poverty in Montgomery County. My friend and colleague President Navarro led on this initiative, and I want to thank her for that.
It deserves notice here that through the efforts of President Navarro, County Executive Elrich and Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith, we were able to close a significant gap in school funding. In addition, we took action as a Council to fully fund Montgomery College in this budget, a crucial stepping stone for many of our residents looking to enrich their lives and prepare for better-paying careers through education and career certification.
Another major priority that I strongly advocated for in this budget is funding for wrap-around services in MCPS. I am thrilled to see the funding added expands the Excel Beyond the Bell program to four new elementary schools.
This after-school program has demonstrated success to help close the achievement and opportunity gap for at-risk students. Through enrichment work, the arts, STEM projects, sports and other activities, students are better positioned for success in the classroom.
We also committed to supporting our young people by funding mental health initiatives, including increasing the hours for our county-wide mental health texting hotline to run until midnight. I raised this because this is an essential tool to help our young people through difficult times. Those critical hours we have added to coverage, between 9p.m. and midnight, are often time when youth are alone and vulnerable. We are literally funding a lifeline.
An initiative that I introduced adds funding for mental health therapists that will serve middle schools. One-in-five of our students face a significant mental health issue and suicide is the third-highest cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 14 years old, and second cause of death for kids between 15 and 19 years old.
Our mental health crisis needs to be addressed, and I hope by taking the steps in this budget, we can add to the continuum of services for our young people.
I’m also pleased to see investment to address environmental initiatives. From restored bus routes to funds to prioritize climate change efforts, we are making a statement to address our climate emergency. And while these budget items are positive, I want to encourage our County Executive to add more funds through supplemental amendments during the year to continue our work and make greater advances to confront our Climate Emergency.
I congratulate Councilmember Glass for making Kids Ride Free a priority. This is both an equity item and an environmental initiative that will help students get to our recreation centers for evening programming, but also creates more transit riders in the future -- a durable, transit-oriented generation, which is what we need if we’re ever going to reduce the number of cars on the road.
A small but impactful item on our reconciliation list is restoration for the Montgomery County Agriculture Education fund. Our Agriculture Reserve is a crown jewel of Montgomery County. This is a place where we educate our public school students on the importance of open space, agriculture and where their food comes from -- critical information for MCPS students. If we are to help keep our kids healthy, protect the environment, and preserve the Earth for future generations, starting here in Montgomery County.
Thank you to my colleagues for what I believe is good budget, that does a lot with limited resources.
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Release ID: 19-178