Visions of ‘doomsday’ shake county leaders

Don’t balance the state’s problems budget on our backs, they urge

Lest the imaginary budget become an actual budget, Bliden said state leaders must put their differences aside.

‘‘The obvious goal of the doomsday budget is to promote a partisan debate which transcends partisanship and parochialism so state leaders can come to an agreement,” he said. ‘‘With county leaders, their perspective is whether there is a special session or handled in regular session, they want the state to do it right.”

And to do it without cutting millions of dollars from their local coffers.

Local leaders say their county budgets are already stretched to the limit with providing their own services, as well as paying for a larger portion of state programs — such as health care — that the state has not adequately funded.

Bliden estimated that a shift of half of teacher retirement costs to the counties — one of the imagined budget scenarios — would require counties to increase their property tax rates by 6 cents.

‘‘We already give 87 cents of every dollar to the state,” said Montgomery County Council Vice President Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown. ‘‘We should at least maintain that already low-level [giveback from the state], and we should actually increase that a little.”

Under the doomsday analysis, Montgomery County would lose about 24 percent, or $155 million, of its state aid, the highest percentage among all 24 jurisdictions. Worcester County was second to Montgomery, with a proposed 19.6 percent — or $6.8 million — cut.

‘‘This is what [County Executive Isiah Leggett] was concerned about: that we will absorb a large amount of the state’s structural deficit,” said Leggett spokesman Patrick K. Lacefield. ‘‘If the county were forced to sustain the cuts in the doomsday budget, then poor and working people and even people who are not poor and working could see a reduction in services.”

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D) said his county could not absorb the almost $40 million imagined cut — about 15 percent — outlined in the doomsday budget.

‘‘People say all we have to do is raise property taxes, but we don’t have that taxing ability raise them to those levels, so we’d have to look at other things which would jeopardize our quality of life,” Ulman said.

For counties that could raise property tax rates, an increase could be detrimental, Bliden said.

‘‘Residents abhor property taxes, and the homestead credits and other credits counties provide are just anger management,” he said. ‘‘Then [counties are left with] cutting services on which most residents rely — public safety and health department workers.”

Ulman said his county is not preparing for possible state reductions, nor is it reducing its services or cutting jobs.

‘‘The counties didn’t cause this deficit,” he said. ‘‘I fail to see any justification why counties should cover any of the consequences of the state decisions.”

In fact, counties are still being affected by a 1999 state income tax cut and the Thornton education program passed in 2002 without a funding stream, Ulman said.

Some legislators have suggested that rich counties like Montgomery, with high credit ratings and substantial reserves, could afford the state cuts.

‘‘To a great degree, we are the state’s economic answer. We shouldn’t go at this saying we can hurt this jurisdiction more than this jurisdiction because we could suck it up,” Montgomery’s Knapp said. ‘‘To say that counties can afford it is amazingly shortsighted and amazingly parochial.”

Most of all, it’s unfair, Bliden said.

‘‘Because of unanticipated revenues from recordation and transfer taxes, counties have been able to maintain healthy fund balances that they didn’t invest frivolously nor honor ongoing requests with onetime money, which is laudable,” he said. ‘‘What they did is guard it, recognizing that there would be future real estate challenges. They have responsibly managed their budgets and have directed resources to areas where citizens want investments in education and public safety ... I think it is an illusion to argue that counties can digest these cuts without pain.”

Jonathan R. Seeman, Prince George’s County budget director, said using his county’s $250 million reserve fund would not be an ideal solution for covering the $90 million in imagined doomsday cuts.

‘‘We’ve done a good job managing financially within this administration and have dealt with fluctuations in revenue,” Seeman said. ‘‘We could tap into the rainy day fund if we need to and use it as a buffer, but we have not considered that yet.”

County leaders are hoping that Gov. Martin O’Malley — with his local government experience — will identify with them and the needs of their jurisdictions.

‘‘The governor made a public pronouncement that the state budget would not be balanced on the backs of the counties, and I considered that welcome news,” said Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold (R).

His county would lose about $61 million, or 15 percent, of state aid under the doomsday projections.

Whether O’Malley (D) can or will stem the cuts to local governments, budget problems still remain, said Montgomery County Council President Marilyn J. Praisner.

‘‘Another piece of the problem is that any new program that the governor wants is not part of the [budget] gap. The Transportation Trust Fund is not part of the gap. Pre-funding of employee retirement costs is not part of the gap,” said Praisner (D-Dist. 4) of Calverton. ‘‘So there are major fundamental issues beyond the issues they’ve identified and the concern is whether there is new funding produced to go toward the gap.

‘‘I think putting the doomsday budget out there is important to educating everyone,” she said. ‘‘It now behooves us all to come together to find viable solutions.”