The St. Mary’s County Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday for the recommended budget for the fiscal year of 2009. According to the Board, the primary goal of the FY 2009 budget is to provide a sustainable solution to all of the current services provided by the local government.
In order to have this sustainable solution certain taxes are proposed to be raised, such as the emergency support services tax, rescue and fire taxes which will be reflected in the property tax bill. These taxes will average $15 to $22 more per property in the first year dependent on which district citizens reside in within St. Mary’s County.
For FY 2009 the total operating budget for St. Mary’s County totals $327,489,851 which is comprised of the general fund, enterprise funds, special funds and the non-operating funds of the independent boards. The independent boards include the Board of Education, Board of Library Trustees and the College of Southern Maryland.
Another important part of the County’s budget is the capital projects fund. The capital projects fund is a separate construction budget for the financing of long-term capital improvements. In short, it is the money that will be used to fund construction projects for St. Mary’s County. The total amount of money for this is $55,652,938.
The general fund, the largest portion of the budget, accounts for all the revenues and expenditures for basic services provided to citizens. These services include education, public safety, public works, health and human services, regulatory services and library services. In order to build the general fund the county has to rely on revenues generated from property taxes, income taxes, other local taxes, licenses and permits, service charges, grants, highway user fees, investment income and the fund balance (revenue surplus from last year).
Enterprise funds, which are operated similar to separate business enterprises, account for the operations of recreation programs, the public golf course, the solid waste and recycling fund and the medical adult day care fund. Generally, fees and charges are levied at rates necessary to cover the costs of operation; thus enterprise fund activities are not dependent on taxes for their operating revenue. Special revenue funds consist of the emergency services support tax, special tax district costs and other miscellaneous programs. Lastly, the non-operating funds are simply grants received from state and federal sources which are primarily used for the public library, public schools and the College of Southern Maryland.
The question that is left about the budget which needs to be answered is to understand how these funds will be appropriated. One budget highlight shows that the recommended budget for the County Commissioners of $1.26 million is $130,348 or 11.5% more than FY 2008. This includes the full year increase in Commissioner’s salaries, as legislated and full year salary costs for the Chief of Staff position added during FY 2008.
Out of the general fund, the money will be spent on creating 14.5 more full-time positions in the County’s legal, finance, information technology, public works, public safety and human service programs; 30 replacement vehicles and 3 new vehicles, in which the Office of the Sheriff will receive 23 of these vehicles; a transfer of almost half a million dollars for the accumulated deficit of the Medical Adult Daycare Program; an increase in the Sheriff’s budget of $3.283 million; an increase of $73,102 for elections to provide additional supplies and filing vacancies; an increase in the allocation to the College of Southern Maryland by $137,134; an additional $138