For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 9, 2023
The Montgomery County Council will meet on Wednesday, May 10 at 9:30 a.m. to review fiscal year 2024 operating budgets for multiple departments and offices and FY23-28 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) projects.
More detail on each agenda item is provided below.
Each item on the Council’s Consent Calendar can be found on the Council’s website. Approval of the Consent Calendar adopts the committee recommendations.
FY24 Operating Budget and FY23-28 CIP projects listed on the consent calendar include:
At 9:40 a.m., the Council will review the following FY24 operating budgets, FY23-28 CIP amendments and committee recommendations for the following departments and projects.
Review: The Council will review the recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Office of Human Resources, which is more than $344 million. This is an increase of more than $20.3 million, or a 6.3 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Operating Budget. The office’s budget is comprised of a General Fund component and an Employee Health Benefit Self Insurance Fund component. The recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the General Fund portion is $13,185,543, which is an increase of 39.9 percent from the FY23 Approved Budget. The Office of Human Resources provides quality human resources services to County employees, partners and the community.
The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee recommends approving the Office of Human Resources FY24 Employee Health Self-Insurance Fund budget as recommended by the County Executive. In addition, the committee recommended approving the OHR FY24 General Fund budget as recommended by the County Executive, except for certain items detailed in the staff report.
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the Working Families Income Supplement Non-Departmental Account (NDA), which is more than $27.4 million. The recommended FY24 budget is a decrease of more than $17.6 million in total expenditures due to $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds received to supplement this NDA in FY23. This NDA provides funds to supplement the state's refundable Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and is intended to benefit low-income working families in the County. For FY24, an increase of more than $7.3 million, or more than 36 percent, from the General Fund is needed to provide a 70 percent match of the federal EITC, when combined with state match.
In addition, the Council will review a more than $4.4 million FY23 Supplemental Appropriation for the Working Families Income Supplement NDA. The increase is needed due to a higher number of recipients than anticipated in FY23. The County Executive recommends using unspent federal ARPA funds for this the supplemental appropriation.
The GO Committee expressed its support for the Working Families Income Supplement program as a critical anti-poverty tool for County residents and supported the Executive’s recommended approach for partial replacement of the federal ARPA funding. In addition, the committee voted unanimously to place the County Executive’s recommended increase in County funds on the reconciliation list in two tranches and categorize both as high priority items.
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the Community Engagement Cluster, which is more than $8.8 million. This is an increase of more than $1.2 million or a 16.6 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Budget.
The Community Engagement Cluster includes the five Regional Services Centers, the Commission for Women and the Office of Community Partnerships, which includes the Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center and the Montgomery County Volunteer Center. The organization utilizes a shared administrative management model with business services, administrative support and facilities shared among these programs.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the GO Committee.
Department of Transportation General Fund
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the Department of Transportation General Fund, which is nearly $61.2 million. This is an increase of more than $5 million, or a nine percent increase, from the FY23 Approved Budget. The budget for General Fund divisions is presented in seven programs, covering Traffic Engineering and Operations, Highway Services and portions of Transportation Engineering and the Director’s Office. In addition, budget details are provided for more than 30 subprograms for additional transparency.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the Transportation and Environment (TE) Committee.
Review: The Council will review the more than $182 million FY24 Operating Budget for the Department of Transportation (DOT) Mass Transit Fund, which provides public transportation services in Montgomery County. This FY24 Recommended Operating Budget is an increase of more $9.7 million or a 5.7 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Budget.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the TE Committee.
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for DOT Parking Lot Districts, which is more than $26.9 million. This is an increase of more than $1 million or a 3.9 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Budget. The budget provides funds for public parking management and development in commercial areas throughout Montgomery County.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the TE Committee.
Review: The Council will review the more than $2 million FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the Office of Human Rights. The FY24 budget represents an increase of $423,806 or 25.9 percent from the FY23 Approved Budget. This includes 12.1 full-time equivalents (FTEs), which is an increase of one part-time equivalent (PTE) from FY23. Personnel costs comprise 79.6 percent of the budget and operating expenses comprise the remaining 20.4 percent of the budget.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee.
Arts and Humanities Council NDA
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the Arts and Humanities Council NDA, which is more than $6.3 million. This is an increase of $9,923 from the FY23 Approved Budget. The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County is the designated local arts agency of the County government and provides the infrastructure to maintain a robust creative community that includes more than 500 cultural organizations and 2,000 artists and scholars.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the Education and Culture (EC) Committee.
Montgomery County Public Libraries
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL), which is nearly $49.8 million. This is an increase of more than $3.9 million or an 8.5 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Budget. Montgomery County’s library system consists of 23 library sites, including the Noyes Library for Young Children, the Correctional Facility Library and the Collection Management Center. The County’s 23rd library site in Clarksburg is scheduled to open in FY27.
The EC Committee recommends adding the additional lapse recalculation to facilitate hiring library staff to the reconciliation list categorized as a high priority and adding the world languages collection update to the reconciliation list categorized as priority.
Takoma Park Library Payment NDA
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the Takoma Park Library Payment NDA, which is $172,416. This is an increase of $4,505 or a 2.7 percent increase the FY23 approved NDA. This NDA is an annual payment to the Takoma Park Library that is calculated with a set historical formula to estimate a reimbursement based on municipal taxes. The Takoma Park Maryland Library is an independent municipal public library and a department of the City of Takoma Park.
This NDA represents 4.6 percent of the City of Takoma Park’s FY23-24 proposed expenditures of more than $1.5 million for the library. The City of Takoma Park has projected a 4.34 percent increase to the library’s expenditures in FY24 with total City of Takoma Park revenues projected to increase by 5.29 percent.
The EC Committee recommends adding the FY24 reimbursement calculation increase to the reconciliation list categorized as a high priority.
Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) NDA
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the MCAEL NDA, which is more than $2.2 million. This is an increase of 7.7 percent from the FY23 Approved Budget. MCAEL is a community coalition of public, nonprofit and business partners that support nearly 60 adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and literacy service programs.
The EC Committee recommends adding the increase in FY24 operating and grant expenses, including a committee addition of $35,000, to the reconciliation list categorized as a high priority.
Amendment to FY24 Budget for Urban Districts to add Friendship Heights
Review: The Council will review a proposed amendment to the FY24 budget to include funding for the newly created Friendship Heights Urban District. The Council approved the creation of the district with Bill 13-23, which was enacted by Council on April 11, 2023. This amendment is necessary to appropriate funds collected by the district. Due to the timing, this amendment is going directly to the Council without review by the ECON Committee.
The Friendship Heights Urban District will be fully funded by a commercial district charge within the Urban District with the amount specified in law as $120 per residential rental unit or hotel room and $0.165 per square foot of the rentable commercial property. Excluding Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs), there are 230 hotel rooms, 1,079 residential units, 649,627 square feet of retail space and 2,140,906 square feet of office space within the Urban District. This will generate annual revenue of $617,518, which will be fully expended to support the Friendship Heights Alliance
At 1:30 p.m., the Council will review the following FY24 Operating Budgets, FY23-28 CIP amendments and committee recommendations for the following departments and projects.
Montgomery County Department of Recreation
Review: The Council will review the Recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Montgomery County Department of Recreation, which is more than $60.1 million. This is an increase of over $4.9 million or a nearly 8.9 percent increase from the Approved FY23 Budget. The Department of Recreation provides high quality, diverse and accessible recreation programs, services and facilities that enhance the quality of life for residents in Montgomery County. The Council staff report includes a breakdown of the recommended appropriations.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committee.
Recreation - School Based Programs and Out-of-School Time Programs and Skills for the Future NDA
Review: The Council will review the Recommended FY24 Operating Budget for School-Based and Out-of-School Time programs. The budget for these items includes $549,261 to expand Excel Beyond the Bell to two new sites, $444,411 to expand TeenWorks programming and $284,774 for the Skills for the Future NDA, which includes an inflationary increase of three percent from the FY23 Approved Budget.
The Skills for the Future NDA includes an increase of $8,294, or an increase of three percent from the FY23 Approved Budget. The increase in the NDA is due to inflationary increase for nonprofit services provider contracts. The funding provides for high-quality Science, Technology, Engineering and Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) programming in both academic and recreation settings to low-income youth.
The joint PHP and EC Committee recommended approval of the increases and adding these items to the reconciliation list categorized as high priorities.
Review: The Council will review the Recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Historical Activities NDA, which is $166,860. This is an increase of $4,860 or a three percent increase from the FY23 Approved Budget. This NDA provides funding for the Historical Society to support the society's education program staff, educational and outreach programs for County residents and to maintain the Historical Society's research library and museums. The committee recommendations are included in the staff report.
Montgomery County Green Bank NDA
Review: The Council will review the recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Montgomery County Green Bank NDA, which is more than $19.3 million. This is an increase of $667,184 or a 3.7 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Operating Budget. The Montgomery County Green Bank leverages public and private investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the County.
This NDA was created in FY23 after the Council adopted Bill 44-21, which established an annual funding mechanism for the Green Bank. Under this bill, the County is required to appropriate 10 percent of the County’s fuel-energy tax revenue to the Green Bank and the amount recommended in FY24 represents 10 percent of the projected revenue.
The joint TE and GO Committee recommends placing the FY24 recommended increase of $667,184 on the reconciliation list categorized as a high priority item and approve the rest of the FY24 budget as submitted by the County Executive.
Review: The Council will review the recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Climate Change Planning NDA, which is $591,639. This is a decrease of more than $100,038, or 14.5 percent from the FY23 Approved Operating Budget. The NDA provides funding for the prioritization of greenhouse gas reduction strategies and the development of an implementation plan to meet the County's greenhouse gas reduction goals of 80 percent by 2027 and 100 percent by 2035. Funding in this NDA can also be used to develop climate change adaptation strategies.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the TE Committee.
Environmental Protection: General Fund
Review: The Council will review the recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) General Fund, which is more than $9.9 million. This is an increase of more than $2.4 million, or a 31.9 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Operating Budget. DEP protects and improves Montgomery County's air, water and land, and fosters smart growth, a thriving, sustainable economy and healthy communities.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the TE Committee.
Environmental Protection: Recycling and Resource Management
Review: The Council will review the recommended FY24 Operating Budget for DEP’s Recycling and Resource Management Division, which is more than $142 million, or an increase of $27,809 from the FY23 Approved Operating Budget. This budget is divided into two enterprise funds: collection and disposal. These are non-tax supported funds for which revenues and expenditures are directly connected. Solid Waste Collection Fund expenditures are recommended to increase slightly, and Solid Waste Disposal Fund expenditures are recommended to remain level with FY23.
The committee will also review the FY24 Solid Waste Charges. The County’s solid waste programs are primarily funded by various solid waste charges that support the dedicated enterprise funds. Single-family charges are recommended to increase from 1.8 percent to 9.2 percent depending on the services provided. Multi-family charges are recommended to increase from 1.2 percent to 1.8 percent, depending on the services provided. Non-residential charges have a recommended 5.6 percent reduction. The transfer station tipping fee for refuse under 500 pounds is recommended to increase from $60 to $70 per ton and transfer station tipping fee for refuse in open top containers is recommended to increase from $76 to $84 per ton.
The TE Committee recommends approval of the DEP Solid Waste Collection Fund and Solid Waste Disposal Fund budgets as transmitted by the County Executive. In addition, the committee recommends approval of the FY24 Solid Waste Charges as transmitted by the County Executive.
Environmental Protection: Water Quality Protection Fund
Review: The Council will review the recommended FY24 Operating Budget for DEP’s Water Quality Protection Fund, which is more than $33.9 million. This is an increase of more than $2.9 million or more than 9.4 percent from the FY23 Approved Operating Budget. The Water Quality Protection Fund accounts for 77 percent of the total DEP budget, which is more than $43.9 million. This is due to expenditures to address the requirements of the County’s current National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit.
The staff report includes multiple recommendations for Council consideration from the TE Committee.
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Operating Budget for the Office of Public Information, which is more than $7.1 million. This is an increase of $423,108 or nearly 6.3 percent from the FY23 Approved Budget. The mission of the Office of Public Information is to provide timely, accurate and effective communication to the public. The office works with the County Executive, departments and agencies, media, County employees, the County Council and other elected officials, businesses, civic groups and the Montgomery County community. The committee recommendations are included in the staff report.
Review: The Council will review the FY24 Recommended Operating Budget for the OIG, which is more than $3 million. This is an increase of $534,921 or a more than 21 percent increase from the FY23 Approved Budget. The mission of the OIG is to promote the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and operations of County government and independent County agencies, prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse in government activities, and proposes ways to increase the legal, fiscal and ethical accountability of County government and County-funded agencies.
The GO Committee unanimously recommends placing the recommended increase of $214,017 and two FTEs to create an educational oversight division on the reconciliation list categorized as a high priority item. In addition, the committee recommends approving all other FY24 budget items for the Inspector General as recommended by the County Executive and approving a three-year budget projection for the Office of Inspector General for FY25-27 subject to the Council’s final budget decision.
The Council meeting schedule may change from time to time. The current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review can be viewed at: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/ondemand/index.html.
Council and committee meetings are streamed live on the Council’s web page via YouTube and on Facebook Live and can be watched on County Cable Montgomery on Xfinity/RCN 6 HD 996/1056, Fios 30, and on the CCM live stream.
Release ID: 23-172