Montgomery County Council meets on Friday, May 10 at 1 p.m. to Review Multiple FY25 Operating Budgets Including Montgomery College, MCPS, Department of Permitting Services, MCAEL and Early Care and Education Services

The Montgomery County Council will meet on Friday, May 10 at 10am.

Per the news release: The Montgomery County Council will meet on Friday, May 10 at 1 p.m. to continue review of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Operating Budgets. More detail on each agenda item is provided below.

Public Hearings

The Council will hold the following hybrid public hearing at 1 p.m. Residents can visit the Council website to learn about the multiple ways to provide testimony.

Special Appropriation to the FY24 Operating Budget, Montgomery County Public Schools, $10 million for the Employee Benefits Plan Fund

Public hearing and vote expected. On May 1, 2024, Board of Education President Karla Silvestre wrote to the Council requesting an appropriation of $10 million in undesignated reserves to contribute to the Employee Benefit Plan Fund. The proposed special appropriation was not part of the Executive’s FY25 budget submission. This special appropriation is requested to deal with increased health care claims and cost increases.

Amendment to Resolution #20-184, Approval of and Appropriation for the FY2024 Operating Budget of the Montgomery County Government, Montgomery County Public Schools Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB) Trust Transfer Amount

Introduction, public hearing and vote expected: The Council will introduce and is expected to vote on an amendment to Resolution 20-184 that would authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to transfer up to $37.2 million from the Consolidated Retiree Health Benefits Trust to the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB) Trust as needed by MCPS for the payment of FY24 retiree health insurance benefits. The resolution is needed to mitigate the impact of unexpected claims and cost increases currently being experienced across County agencies and would allow the $10 million transfer to the Employee Benefit Plan Fund as described above.

FY25 Operating Budgets

Public Elections Fund NDA

Review: The Council will review the County Executive’s $333,000 recommended FY25 Operating Budget for the Public Elections Fund NDA. In FY24, the Executive recommended an appropriation of $250,000, which was ultimately not funded in the approved budget.

The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee recommends approval of the FY25 Operating Budget for the Public Elections Fund NDA as submitted by the County Executive. This will be an addition to the current fund balance of $4.1 million, resulting in total resources of $4.4 million in FY25.

Under Maryland Election Law, counties may establish their own system of public campaign financing. In Sept. 2014, the Council unanimously enacted Bill 16-14, which established a Public Elections Fund to provide public campaign financing for County Executive and County Council candidates. In Oct. 2020, the Council unanimously enacted Bill 31-20, which increased the maximum contribution limits, increased close-out periods to 90 days after an election, established post-election audit requirements, and other changes.

Department of Permitting Services

Review: The Council will review the more than $45.3 million FY25 Operating Budget for the Department of Permitting Services (DPS), which represents an increase of more than $3.7 million, or 8.9 percent, from the approved FY24 Operating Budget. DPS is Montgomery County’s agency for reviewing and approving permits for building and construction activity and providing compliance and enforcement efforts. As an enterprise fund, DPS pays for the services it provides through the revenue it collects in the form of fees and charges related to the development process and does not receive General Fund tax revenues. For FY25, the County Executive estimates revenues will exceed $50 million, while expenditures will total more than $45 million.

The Economic Development (ECON) Committee recommends approval of the FY25 Operating Budget for DPS as submitted by the County Executive.

Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) NDA

Review: The Council will review the more than $2.4 million Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) NDA recommended by the County Executive. Funding for MCAEL supports grants to community organizations for programs that provide adult English classes. This represents an increase of $207,361 for operating and grant expenses above the FY24 funding level.

The County Executive’s recommendation is approximately $28,000 less than MCAEL’s requested budget, which includes an increase of $235,000 from the FY24 funding level. MCAEL’s request includes increases of approximately $100,000 to $125,000 to support classes and continued living wages for ESOL instructors, an additional $10,000 for small start-up grants for emerging organizations and $100,000 to increase staff size by 1.5 full-time employees.

The Education and Culture (EC) Committee recommends approval of the Executive’s recommended ongoing enhancement of $207,361 for MCAEL operating and grant expenses. In addition, the committee recommends placing this funding on the New/Enhanced Programs List. The committee also recommended an additional $27,639 in ongoing funding to meet MCAEL’s full budget request.

Montgomery College

Review: The Council will review the more than $334 million recommended Maintenance of Effort FY25 Operating Budget for Montgomery College. The recommendation is a decrease of more than $10 million, or three percent, from the previous year. Maintenance of Effort for Montgomery College requires that the County provide the same amount of local funding as in the previous year, or more than $148 million. The County Executive’s recommendation fully funds the College’s request. The decrease reflects a decrease in state aid and the one-time use in FY24 of fund balances to support build out of the leased facility for the East County Education Center.

The EC Committee recommends approval of the College’s Maintenance of Effort FY25 operating budget request. Additional details about the committee recommendation can be found in the Council staff report.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Review: The Council will review the Board of Education’s more than $3.3 billion requested FY25 Operating Budget for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), which is an increase of more than $187 million, or 5.9 percent, over the approved FY24 Operating Budget. The tax-supported budget, which excludes grants and enterprise funds, is more than $3.1 billion. This represents an increase of more than $178 million, or six percent, over the FY24 approved tax-supported budget.

The Board’s request increases the local contribution from the County by more than $162 million, or 8.2 percent, over the approved FY24 local contribution. The Board’s request is more than $188 million over the required Maintenance of Effort level. The Maintenance of Effort requirement for FY25 decreased nearly $26 million from the FY24 approved funding level, which is due to recent years of slight declines in enrollment across grades K-12.

The Board projects FY25 enrollment to be 155,659 in grades K-12, which is 239 students less than the current school year’s enrollment of 155,420. The Board’s request adds a total of $53 million for strategic priority enhancements, new initiatives and elements to enhance or improve key priorities. In addition, the Board’s budget adds a net total increase of 268.7 full-time employees (FTE) above the approved FY24 budget level, for a requested FY25 total of 24,764.5 FTE.

The County Executive recommends an FY25 Operating Budget of more than $3.2 billion, which is an increase of more than $127 million, or four percent, over the approved FY24 funding level. The County Executive’s recommendation is $60 million less than the Board’s requested total budget. The Executive’s recommended County contribution is more than $2.1 billion, which is more than $106 million, or 5.4 percent, above the approved FY24 local contribution. This recommended funding level is more than $55 million less than the Board of Education requested for the County contribution.

The EC Committee recommends placing more than $46.2 million on the New/Enhanced Programs List to increase funding toward the Board of Education’s request. This amount, combined with other tax supported revenue increases, would result in a total tax supported increase of $49.5 million for the MCPS FY25 Operating Budget. Addition details can be found in the Council staff report.

Early Care and Education Follow-Up Services

Review: The Council will review the County Executive’s recommended FY25 Operating budget for items that involve Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and MCPS. These include more than $13.4 million for Early Childhood Services, $11.2 million for the Early Care and Education NDA, $7.1 million for the Newcomers Initiative, $1.9 million for Child Care Subsidies, $45.7 million for School Health Services, $14.8 million for Linkages to Learning and School Based Health Centers, $8.6 million for High School Wellness Center and Wellness Initiatives, and $1 million for Cluster Projects.

The staff report will be available by Friday, May 10.