This story, originally published at 10:22 a.m. May 23, 2024, was updated at 4:10 p.m. to include information from the Montgomery County Education Association about a potential cut in educator jobs.
After months of deliberation, public hearings and committee work sessions, the Montgomery County Council on Thursday approved a $7.1 billion county budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1.
Council President Andrew Friedson (District 1) noted the council faced tough decisions as it deliberated over the spending plan for the coming fiscal year.
“By working together in a collaborative, methodical and purposeful way, we’ve achieved a consensus that makes key investments in our core priorities: education, public safety, affordable housing, health and human services,” he said.
Even though the budget includes the highest-ever amount of funding for Montgomery County Public Schools, two council members abstained from voting on that portion of the budget. Councilmembers Will Jawando (At-Large) and Kristin Mink (District 5) said they were concerned that not fully funding the school board’s recommended spending plan would potentially lead to cuts, layoffs and increased class sizes.
“One thing I’m clear on is our students need more not less. Our teachers need more support, not less. And the impact of these cuts are going to be felt in every school, disproportionately to kids that are most vulnerable, and so we can’t allow that to happen,” Jawando said. “I just I hope that the school system can figure this out and before we get to July 1, there’s a way to figure it out. But I just can’t in good conscience vote for these levels of cuts.”
Mink said she was concerned about new information detailing the potential impact on MCPS that came to light after she and other council members tentatively approved the county budget in a straw vote last week.
“I know that there are concerns out there about … is this a Hail Mary attempt to get more money in the budget? I want to just acknowledge all of those concerns,” she said. “We’re trying to pass a responsible budget here. I feel like I need more information because if this is what is really going to happen, if it really cannot be avoided, we can’t let this happen because this will damage our school system for years and years to come.”
Councilmember Evan Glass (At-Large) noted with irritation that the school board was well aware–after months of deliberations–of the council’s plans for MCPS spending ahead of Thursday’s vote.
“And they’re giving us information now about our decisions? Shame on them, blindsiding us, blindsiding our educators, blindsiding the entire community,” he said, noting that the school board was meeting Thursday morning in closed session to discuss budget issues.
According to board documents, the school board was in closed session until 3:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss topics including quasi-judicial matters, capital improvement and operating budget strategy, personnel matters and collective bargaining negotiations with the unions for teachers and principals.
In a Thursday afternoon release, the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) said it had been notified Tuesday night by MCPS that “the school system is preparing to eliminate more than 300 educators’ jobs” as a result of the lack of full funding for the school board’s recommended budget.
“Such a move would result in dozens of lay-offs, hundreds of involuntary transfers, and the cancelation of contracts for new hires, said MCEA, the local teachers union, in the release.
Glass said the council had “no other option” than to fund the budget and he hoped that the council and the district would not be in the same position next budget season.
“Our educators deserve better, our students deserve better, and our community deserves better,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know about the county government spending plan:
Critics say highest-ever spending for MCPS still not enough
The council approved a budget that includes $26.3 million more for MCPS than had been allocated in County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposed spending plan, which would have allocated about $3.3 billion to MCPS.
Elrich told MoCo360 in an interview Tuesday that he had always planned to use money from a tax dollar-fueled fund used to pay retirement health benefits to county employees to close the 1.8% gap between what he proposed for MCPS and what the school board requested. However, Elrich did not include that funding idea when he introduced his proposed budget on March 14, and Friedson told MoCo360 he’d never heard about this idea from Elrich.
The unions representing teachers and service employees in MCPS—the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) and the SEIU Local 500—expressed deep concern over the proposed school spending in the council’s budget in a May 16 joint press release. They had also been critical of Elrich’s proposed school budget.
The unions said they recognized the cuts to the school board’s recommended budget would not be “as severe” as under Elrich’s proposal, but noted the council’s request would leave the district with $30 million less than “what is necessary to maintain current services.”
In a Thursday afternoon release, MCEA said it had been notified Tuesday night by MCPS that “the school system is preparing to eliminate more than 300 educators’ jobs” as a result of the lack of full funding for the school board’s recommended budget.
“Such a move would result in dozens of lay-offs, hundreds of involuntary transfers, and the cancelation of contracts for new hires,” the teachers union said in the release.
The union’s claim about the potential loss of 300 jobs could not be immediately confirmed by MCPS on Thursday afternoon.
The Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) had expressed similar concerns in last week’s release.
“This decision will have far-reaching consequences for our students, schools, and offices,” the union wrote in a press release Friday.
New transparency and accountability requirements for MCPS
The MCPS budget will be tied to new requirements that the school system submit reports on new programs and initiatives being funded as well as updates on actual class sizes, special education enrollment and other metrics.
“This would be the first time ever the council will include reporting metrics and accountability language,” Friedson told MoCo360.
The council created two new positions in the county Office of the Inspector General (OIG) dedicated to MCPS and is funding two additional positions to establish an MCPS oversight division within the office. This is partly in response to criticism that the school system received for its handling of an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by former Farquhar Middle School principal Joel Beidleman.
Public safety programs are expanded
The budget will continue and increase funding for the county police department’s Drone as First Responder program, which will expand to service in Bethesda and Germantown/Gaithersburg.
Under what started as a six-month pilot drone program in Silver Spring and Wheaton, police deploy a drone after a 911 call if the dispatcher and drone pilot believe it would be useful to use one to respond. Once the drone arrives on the scene, the police officer remotely piloting the aircraft can assess whether a threat is credible, if more emergency responders are needed, and other details that could help expedite emergency response, according to police.
Police and county officials say they’ve found success with the program, particularly when it comes to de-escalating intense situations.
The budget also increases funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides grants to help houses of worship and community organizations at risk of hate crimes to pay for security guards, cameras and other safety measures. The county reported a 38% increase in applications for grant funding this year, with over 150 organizations applying.
First-ever health and wellness service funding specifically for LGBTQ+ residents
Several local LGBTQ+ advocates and nonprofits, including the MoCo Pride Center organization, urged the county government to provide more funding specifically for LGBTQ+ health and wellness services throughout the budget process. As a result, councilmembers chose to specifically address the wellness needs of LGBTQ+ residents in the budget for the first time ever.
“This is a real and present emergency. Threats of violence [toward the LGBTQ+ community] persist and are extreme,” MoCo Pride Center CEO Phillip Alexander Downie said in an April public hearing.
Several county reports including an Office of Legislative Oversight report found stark disparities in health care access, and specifically gender-affirming care, for LGBTQ+ county residents, and recommended the council put more resources behind the issue.
The county has relied on the MoCo Pride Center, which does not have a brick-and-mortar location, to host much of its testing services for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, according to council documents. The organization administered more than 250 HIV tests at Pride Month events in May and June of 2023, according to county data.
Council cuts Elrich’s proposal
While 99.5% of Elrich’s budget remained in the council’s version, the county executive has been vocal about his frustration with the spending cuts made by the council.
“They made a lot of cuts in the environmental department. This is something that everybody says they want; you know, they pass [Building Energy Performance Standards] legislation, but they took away people to help carry out the BEPS legislation,” Elrich said.
Elrich also said he was disappointed that a full-time solar energy plan position was removed from the budget and $3 million was cut from the county’s food resiliency program.
Some smaller cuts included spending that would have paid for replacing bulletproof vests for first responders and a camp for girls aimed at building interest in a firefighting career.
“We’re desperate to get more women into the fire department,” Elrich said. “They took money away from a program that was designed to address that.”
Before last week’s straw vote on the proposed budget, council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-At-large) acknowledged her disappointment that the council had to make some difficult spending decisions.
“I believe what we were able to fund in this budget reflects our top and most urgent concerns,” Stewart said.
Elrich and councilmembers also disagree on the legitimacy of a proposed structural deficit. According to council staff, Elrich’s proposed budget could result in a structural deficit of $115 million in fiscal year 2026, meaning the county would be spending more than it collects in tax revenues. But Elrich maintains that he believes council staff’s projection is inaccurate.
However, many of Elrich’s major proposals remained in the budget, including funding for the Great Seneca Transit network, an upcounty bus service, clean energy projects for businesses and residents through the Montgomery County Green Bank, and for early childhood education and services.
Elrich criticizes level of transparency in council’s deliberations
Elrich accused the council of not being transparent enough in its budget deliberations during an interview with MoCo360 on Tuesday.
“[Some of them] voted on things they were not probably well informed on because they don’t serve on the [specific] committees for any number of things,” he said. “If they’d had a public meeting and they said, ‘hey, we can’t fund all this, let’s talk about what our priorities are,’ the public would have gotten to see what their priorities are, the public would have seen who voted for what.”
County Chief Administrative Officer Rich Madeleno agreed.
“We don’t know what the guidance was for these decisions,” he said of cuts and changes to Elrich’s proposal.
Friedson pushed back on that claim in an interview with MoCo360 on Tuesday, stating that 255 residents participated in five public hearings on the proposed budget, which represents a 55% increase in participation from 2023, and that the council received “hundreds more” calls and emails about the spending plan.
“The council has had the most public and transparent process that we’ve ever had,” Friedson said. “Unfortunately, some of the new and enhanced programs and positions–some of which I support, like the county executive does–were not prioritized because we had to weigh them against education funding.”
This story will be updated.