Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON- There’s bad news for homeowners in Montgomery County.
On Thursday the county council tentatively approved a $5.3 billion budget for the 2017 fiscal year that includes a whopping 8.7 percent property tax increase.
The extra revenue will go towards expenses including hiring new teachers, decreasing class sizes, doing construction at schools and giving teachers and county employees a 4.5 percent raise.
The council cast a unanimous vote on the tax increase, which is needed to raise taxes above the charter limit. The last time taxes were raised above the amount allowed under county law was in FY09.
This increase will cost the average property owner, whose home is valued at $446,441, $326 more a year more.
“And let’s be clear, nobody likes the idea of increasing taxes of any kind, unless you think to the contrary, you’re wrong, but our needs are great,” said council president Nancy Floreen.
Floreen said schools are busting at the seams and adding more students each year. She said the council couldn’t decrease class sizes without a substantial increase in the amount of money going to schools.
The budget includes $90 million over the maintenance of effort level, or the amount the state requires the county to spend on schools.
County Executive Ike Leggett wrote in a statement he appreciates the council’s support for his emphasis on investing more heavily in pubic schools and other programs but added he’s concerned the council increased spending $27 million over what he recommended and taxes $84 over.
“Absent a significant economic recovery that far exceeds expectations, this will mean potentially severe budget reductions next year because we have nearly exhausted all revenue possibilities to accommodate ongoing Council spending increases in this budget,” Leggett wrote.
After the vote, many members of the council talked about the benefits of a budget that prioritizes education, including increasing property values in the future.
“While we have a new and unprecedented working relationship with the board of education, and while this is indeed an education first budget, I have a difficult time celebrating because these achievements come at a price and will inflict real hardship,” said council member George Leventhal.
Those hardships include higher property taxes for residents and smaller raises for county employees.
The original budget proposed by the county executive included a second step pay increase for teachers and county employees.
A renegotiated spending plan got rid of that second increase and re-allocated that money for hiring new teachers, among other expenditures.
In an interview with WMAL Radio the day before the budget vote, attorney Robin Ficker said increasing the tax rate would make it more difficult for people to stay in their homes. He petitioned for the law requiring the council to cast a unanimous vote to increase taxes beyond the charter limit.
Also Thursday, the council voted to give a $692 tax credit tax to people who live in the homes they own in the next fiscal year, and increased the county’s recordation tax on home sales by more than $500 for the average transaction.
The final budget vote will happen May 26.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved.
(Photo: CNN)
