- General Services
- the Humane Society
- Planning & Zoning
- Procurement
- Human Resources
I’m not talking about, “Let’s cut 5% out of this department, or 8% out of that one”; that’s the cowardly version of fiscal conservatism. No, the council proposed specific cuts.
Once a budget is passed, County Executive Rick Pollitt isn’t obligated to cut EXACTLY where the council recommends. However, he won’t be able to spend more than the council appropriates to a particular category of a particular department. While an argument can definitely be made for amending the charter to require a line-item budget, I was impressed (and gratified) to see all seven council members agree to detailed cuts (yes, that even includes Democrat Sheree Sample-Hughes).
Admittedly, this was the first session of this budget cycle that I was able to attend. However, I sincerely hope that Thursday’s session was a harbinger of things to come. Can we all expect to see no increase in the real property rate? It’s too early to tell. One thing is for sure; the Wicomico Council is giving a go at stabbing Pollitt’s rate hike to death with their pencils.
The council meets again on Monday (9AM – 12 Noon) and again on Tuesday. The fur should really fly on Tuesday. That’s when the Board of Education is scheduled to appear. Since they have neglected to provide council with any of the information requested by council, I expect that John Fredericksen and his merry little band of bureaucrats will meet with a favorable crowd.
6 comments:
Stabbing with pencils will lead to lead poisoning. We'll need the rate hike to deal with the cleanup! Vote yes, council, to the modest hike.
A FIVE HOUR work session? Did they break for lunch? Did Gail Barkovitch eat her words about long sessions?
Seriously, glad to see them go at a budget. That's what councils are supposed to do!
Heard Ireton is in a tizzy fit with Cohen for something on the budget. Guess the city council is cutting stuff. Anyone know anything about that?
Great to here this, I hope the council will protect us from the rate hike that King Richard has planned.
G.A., a couple of things I don't quite understand. Why are you praising the county council so much when this is what Salisbury does too, well, since Terry Cohen made the amendment that makes the changes council makes as part of the budget.
Even with that, can't Ireton and in this case Pollitt just make transfers to their heart's content? If so, isn't this all meaningless and a waste of time? In the end, don't they just cut the total that can be spent?
They should both go line item if you ask me. What would be the downside?
Anon 1937 -
I'm not dissing the Salisbury Council. I'm praising the Wicomico Council. I haven't been able to attend any of Salisbury's budget sessions yet; but plan to. On Thursday I praised Salisbury Council for another thing that was related to the budget sessions.
As to what Ireton and Pollitt can do, they are different things. Both are using a variant of a "program budget". However, Ireton will have more latitude in what he can and cannot do. Pollitt's budget bill is broken down into departments and then categories within departments. As an example, if the council cuts $50,000 from the "Salaries" category within the General Services department Rick will have to cut payroll in that department by $50,000. He can't transfer money from the "Operations" category.
I hope that clears things up a bit.
So, if they cut the Salaries category by the amount of the PIO's salary then everyone takes a paycut in order to save the PIO or they get rid of someone else of the equivalent salary.
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