Commissioners maintain current tax rates in $235 million budget

Bertino, Bunting pleased with results of ‘deep dive’ into Board of Education spending

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer

The Worcester County Commissioners on June 6 approved a fiscal year 2023-24 operating budget that holds the line on both property and local income taxes. The budget maintains the current property tax rate of $0.845 and local income tax rate of 2.25 percent.

The commissioners adopted the final proposed FY24 budget totaling $235.89 million in a 6-1 vote. Both Ocean Pines representatives, Commissioner President Chip Bertino and Commissioner Jim Bunting, voted in favor of the budget, as did Caryn Abbott, Ted Elder, Eric Fiori, and Diana Purnell. Only Commissioner Joe Mitrecic voted in opposition to the budget approval.

“I do believe this is a responsible budget,” Bertino said.

County law requires that the commissioners adopt an expense budget and tax rates on or before the first Tuesday in June. Budget Officer Kim Reynolds reviewed the budget, which includes a 2 percent cost of living adjustment and one step increase for eligible county employees and fringe benefits, with the remaining surplus of $385,818 being added to other post employment benefits for the Board of Education employees.

Bunting offered a motion to approve the BOE budget, which includes maintenance of effort (MOE) funding of $100.006 million, retirement expenses of $758,679, and Buckingham Elementary School design fees of $815,000.

The total school system budget is $126.7 million, including state and other funding. MOE is a calculation of the amount of funding required to maintain the same level of service as the prior year.

A majority of the commissioners voted 5-2, with Mitrecic and Purnell in opposition, to approve the school system budget.

Mitrecic opposed the motion and requiring the Board of Education to present additional financial records as part of the budget process. He stated that an MOE budget ignores state unfunded mandates and will impact raises and school programs. “It does not look at the future of our education system properly,” he said.

He argued that coming requirements of the state mandated Blueprint for Maryland legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2021 will have a significant impact, including financial for the county. “It’s almost like we’re just hoping they’ll go away,” he said of the upcoming state requirements.

Mitrecic said the county’s insistence on a deeper dive into the school system’s financials this year has done irreparable damage to the relationship between the commissioners and school board.

Bertino disagreed.

“I think the relationship is a good relationship,” he said. “We just don’t see eye to eye this time.”

He said that having a better understanding of the school system’s financial position puts the county and taxpayers in an improved position for the future when it is time to implement state mandates. He said the budget process this year will put the county in a much better position to handle the mandates for the Blueprint for Maryland in the future.

“As a county and as stewards of the taxpayer money, we can’t manage what we can’t measure. And this year we’ve asked to measure so that we can manage better in the future,” Bertino said.

Fiori said line-by-line budget comparisons are essential to making good financial decisions. He said the county can’t simply write a blank check year after year to the school system, but must ensure the Board of Education is effectively spending the tax payers money.

He said that budgets are the basis for making financial decisions, and having transparent financials will make it possible for the Board of Education to make wise financial decisions to assure that teachers, support staff, and bus contractors are able to receive raises and that children receive a wonderful education.

“I am still trying to wrap my head around why clear financials are such a struggle to provide,” Fiori said.

Abbott said the Board of Education tried to convince the taxpayers that the commissioners had no right to a line-item budget and were somehow wrong to want transparency. She hoped that this year will be the start of positive change to the relationship with the school system.

Purnell didn’t agree with the decision to required more detailed budget information from the BOE, but hoped that the commissioners and school system could work together going forward to continue to support schools.

Abbott offered a motion to approve the full county budget, with Fiori giving a second to her motion. The commissioners voted 6-1, with again Mitrecic voting in opposition, to adopt the budget.

Mitrecic reviewed certain cuts that were made to the budget during the commissioners’ reviews and explained that he could not support this budget, which he said does not meet the needs of county employees or the Board of Education.

“We should have tried to make our employees facing the rising cost of living more whole,” he said, adding that money from last year’s budget surplus and the county’s ongoing budget stabilization fund could have been used. He argued the county is going to lose more employees as a result.

Fiori voted in support of the overall county budget. He said he spent countless hours working on it.

He said line by line comparison are an essential component to making wise financials decisions.

Bertino said it is a responsible budget that is in the best interest of taxpayers. He noted that this is the first time in about ten years that the budget has been balanced without using surplus funds from the current fiscal year.

Instead, the surplus at the end of this year will be allocated to other post-employment benefits for the Board of Education, a $50 million liability, to ensure that retirement for current and past employees is secure.

“We don’t all have what we want in this budget.” Bertino said.

But he said it is in the best interest of the county taxpayers who provide the money to fund to run the government, and he believes the county is taking care of its employees across the county agencies.

“Certainly there are individuals or groups of individuals who may be disappointed. But when all is said and done, the money that we get that comes into this county comes from the taxpayers… that the seven of us represent,” Bertino said. “Regardless of what some may think, my opinion is we’ve done a good job.”

St. Martins by the Bay

From Page 40

During a public hearing on the matter, Bob Mitchell, county director of Environmental Programs, said the community system in St. Martins by the Bay was installed in 1984 and it is challenging to maintain it. The community has one community-wide water system and all properties either use it or have a private well. The existing water supply, treatment, and storage system will be abandoned, and all of the properties will then be connected to the Ocean Pines water system.