Calvert County Government staff presented its fiscal year (FY) 2015 budget to the public and the county commissioners Tuesday, March 18 at Calvert Pines Senior Center.
The auditorium held a sizable audience, many clad in red shirts, the color of choice for Calvert’s public school teachers. The educators, who are seeking raises for the next school year, were urged by Calvert Education Association (CEA) leaders to lobby the county commissioners for additional funds to provide for the pay boosts.
The proposed FY 2015 budget totals $239.87 million but Department of Finance and Budget Director Tim Hayden reported the plan remains unbalanced and the deficit has grown from $6.4 million to $7.4 million. Hayden said the widening gap is due to disappointingly lower income tax receipts.
In her remarks at the beginning of the hearing, County Administrator Terry L. Shannon reported “good news and bad news.” The good news was evidence that real property assessments that have been falling since 2007 “do appear to be stabilizing. We are hoping this trend will continue.” The bad news, Shannon stated, was that “revenues were level. Expenditures are outpacing revenues. Our economy is still very down.”
Hayden stated the county is enduring a “tough environment” and stated the only reason the budget picture looks slightly better now than when the current cycle began is because “salary increases are gone. Our expenses are growing quicker than our revenues. We can’t continue like this.” Hayden said the only alternative would be to raise taxes or cut services.
One of the added expenditures pointed out by Hayden is the county’s “new and significant” responsibility of funding teachers’ pension and retirement health care costs, something that was mandated by the Maryland General Assembly.
Noting that with the exception of 2013 when the funding was level, Calvert County Government has always provided funds to Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) that were above the state-mandated maintenance of effort, Hayden declared, “Education is our top priority.”
Hayden’s pronouncement did little to quell the prevailing discontent among educators in the auditorium. During the public comment period, many of the teachers vented their frustrations about the continuing lack of significant pay raises.
Many of the speakers were clearly roiled by a report from the Friday, March 14 edition of the Calvert Recorder which indicated former Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jack Smith had been disingenuous about his annual compensation and the combined compensation for his five-member executive team. The report stated Smith, who resigned last June, had been compensated more than $464,000 beyond his base salary over several years while the executive team combined realized an added $2
