Carroll agency leaders agree taxes should be raised to meet 2025 budget requests

As Carroll County agencies made requests Tuesday for additional funding in the county’s fiscal 2025 operating budget, District 5 Commissioner Ed Rothstein hit each with the same question: Would they support raising taxes to meet their goals? Most said they would.

The county is facing a $12.4 million deficit in its recommended spending plan for next fiscal year, with revenues estimated at $524 million and expenditures at $536.4 million.

Budget and Finance Director Ted Zaleski warned commissioners on March 20 that the county is in “a negative position” going into budget discussions and said “we have to make something happen just to get to zero, before we consider anything else.” He then advised county agencies to not ask for funding beyond the recommended amounts in his proposed budget.

Despite that, agencies, including the school system, Sheriff’s Office, animal control, the community college, and State’s Attorney’s Office, all asked for additional funding for fiscal 2025.

The bulk of the county’s operating budget goes to Carroll County Public Schools. In the current budget, the school system received $225.93 million of the county’s $542.8 million operating budget.

Last month, the Carroll County Board of Education approved a $460.2 million proposed operating budget for fiscal 2025. In that budget, the school system is asking the county for $10.8 million over its required contribution.

Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said an increase in student enrollment, a rise in the number of students needing free or reduced-price meals and a rise in the number of students needing special education or emotional and mental health services, were some reasons the school system needs additional funding.

“There has been a lot of discussion around Blueprint,” McCabe said, referring to the sweeping Blueprint for Maryland’s Future law passed in 2021 to overhaul public school education in the state. “Our system had needs before Blueprint.”

The $3.8 billion Blueprint reform effort is entering the second year of its decade-long rollout. It is designed to make Maryland’s schools among the highest performing in the country by redesigning the public education funding formula, providing more time for teachers to plan lessons and develop skills outside the classroom, and offering universal prekindergarten for 3-year-olds, among other initiatives.

Rothstein questioned McCabe on the possibility of raising taxes to fund the school system’s requests.

“I know it’s a loaded question,” he said. “It’s going to go to every agency.”

McCabe said the school system is facing challenges and needs the county’s support.

“Yes, I would support whatever you have to do, including raising taxes, to do whatever needs to be done,” McCabe said. “There’s going to come a point in time where the people of Carroll County expect a minimum level of service and we are there.”

The fiscal 2025 proposed budget has animal control receiving $1.1 million, compared to $1 million in the current budget; $12.3 million is set aside in 2025 for Carroll County Community College, compared to $11.9 million this year; $5.6 million is recommended for the State’s Attorney’s Office, up from $5.3 million this year; and $3.1 million for the Circuit Court, up from $2.8 million in fiscal 2025, which begins July 1.

Sheriff Jim DeWees advocated for more funding for his office via a change in the formula used by the county. He said more funds were needed to support employee pensions and health care benefits. When asked about whether he supported tax increases to fund his office’s requests, he said if the taxes were going to something specific, such as public education or public safety, it would be an “easier pill for me to swallow.”

Carroll Community College asked for $857,600, for 3.5% salary increases and increased employee health care costs, as well as funding for adult education and for restoring the Miller Entrepreneurship Program, which educates women starting new businesses and companies.

The State’s Attorney’s Office is asking for an additional $360,500 for salary increases of 5% for its 55 employees, as well as $91,620 to hire a security officer and $157,090 to hire an attorney unit chief.

Carroll County State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker Jr. thanked the commissioners for the 10% bonuses approved for employees in last year’s budget, which amounted to $310,470.

“That being said, we still have challenges, which is why we’re before you this morning,” Shoemaker said. “Some of those challenges are market driven as we try to compete with the attorney general’s office, we’ll never be able to compete with them dollar for dollar, but we’ve lost a couple prosecutors to them in the past 12 months.”

Rothstein proceeded to ask Shoemaker for his views on raising taxes to generate revenue.

“I certainly don’t envy you at all,” Shoemaker said. “I much rather have my job instead of your job. Whatever decision you make as the policy maker, I think you need to point the finger at Annapolis, because that really is going to drive the decisions you have to make.”

Carroll County Animal Control asked for $26,120 in additional funding from the 2025 operating budget and another $250,000 from the 2025 capital budget for kennel improvements.

The county commissioners are scheduled to discuss the budget again on Thursday.