For Immediate Release: Thursday, March 28, 2013
The Montgomery County Council will hold five public hearings spread over April 9-11 on Montgomery County’s Fiscal Year 2014 Operating Budget. More than 150 people are expected to express views about specific items, and the general structure, of the budget.
Residents also can offer comments at the public hearings about the FY14 Capital Budget, the WSSC FY14-19 Capital Improvements Program and amendments to the FY13-18 County Capital Improvements Program.
The public hearings will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9; at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10; and at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 11. All hearings will be held in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.
The number of speaker spots available for the week is limited. To register to speak, residents should call 240-777-7803. The deadline to sign up to testify for 1:30 p.m. hearings is 5 p.m. the day before the hearing. The sign-up deadline for 7:30 p.m. hearings is 10 a.m. the day of the hearing.
The hearings will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon) and also will be available via streaming through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov.
County Executive Isiah Leggett presented his recommended budget to the Council on March 15. Over the next eight weeks, the Council and its six committees will analyze the recommendations and will adopt the FY14 budget in late May. The budget adopted by the Council will take effect on July 1.
“Over the past several years we have made many difficult decisions to address the severe fiscal challenges of the Great Recession,” said County Council President Nancy Navarro. “Now, as the economy continues to recover slowly, we must carefully balance a wide array of County needs. That is what our Council Committees and the full Council will undertake over the next two months. We look forward to receiving the comments and suggestions of our residents as we move through the budget process.”
In addition to speaking at the public hearings, residents can offer comments on the budget via email at county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov ; via regular mail to: County Council, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville MD 20850; or by calling the Council’s budget hotline at 240-777-7802. Information on the budget and the work of the Council and its committees on the budget can be found at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council and by clicking “budget update.” That site also can be accessed at:
http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/csltmpl.asp?url=/content/council/budget_summary/FY14/2014_budget_home.asp
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