SNOW HILL – County officials approved a nearly $199 million budget for the coming fiscal year.
On Tuesday, the Worcester County Commissioners voted 6-1 to approve a $198,932,675 budget for fiscal year 2018. It does not increase property tax or income tax rates.
Commissioner Joe Mitrecic, who voted against approving the budget, praised county staff for their efforts in balancing the budget.
“I agree that staff and department heads have submitted a very responsible budget,” he said. “I support this budget however I think it’s lacking in a few areas.”
The commissioners spent the past month adjusting the proposed 2018 budget. Though staff originally presented the commissioners with a $204 million budget, it featured a $5 million shortfall. Opting not to increase taxes, with the help of staff the commissioners eliminated the deficit. The budget approved Tuesday, however, is still $10 million higher than the budget approved last year.
Of the $199 million budget, $84.9 million will go to the Worcester County Board of Education. That funding will allow the school system to provide a 2.8 percent payroll increase. The bus contractors’ hourly rate and mileage rate will increase 1 percent. Starting teacher salaries will increase 2 percent, moving from $43,384 to $44,257.
Mitrecic’s objections to the budget related to grants provided by the county. He said he did not think the $1,500 grant included in the budget for the Maryland Food Bank was enough.
“This donation is woefully low for this group,” he said. “They distributed 807,000 pounds of food to Worcester County residents last year.”
He also advocated for the Worcester County Humane Society. Last month, the commissioners voted 5-2, with he and Commissioner Bud Church opposed, not to provide the organization with a grant. At the time, Commissioner Chip Bertino said by doing so taxpayers would be funding a duplication of services, because taxes already funded Worcester County Animal Control.
Mitrecic argued that point this week.
“It’s not a duplication of service. It’s an augmentation of service,” he said. “Certainly if you have a pet and it wanders away you want the Worcester County Humane Society to take that pet in because it’s a no kill facility. A small donation to that would have gone a long way to help them through the year.”
As in years past, the other grant he voiced dissatisfaction with was the one provided to the Town of Ocean City. The commissioners opted not to increase funding to the resort, which has been seeking a tax setoff of some sort for years to account for a duplication of services. This year resort officials asked for extra funding toward fire department changes and a skate park redesign.
“There were some projects they wanted us to help fund,” Mitrecic said. “Ocean City is part of Worcester County. These projects are infrastructure for the county also, not just the town.”
Ocean City had sought funding to support its skate park and a new fire station. Mitrecic said that when meetings had been held about the skate park in Ocean City, the bulk of the people interested in the topic had not been Ocean City residents. Mitrecic said funding for those projects from the county would have helped address the tax setoff issue.
“I find it interesting my colleague from Ocean Pines doesn’t want to give the Worcester County Humane Society any money because it’s a duplication of services to taxpayers but he has no problem with the $7.5 million the taxpayers of Ocean City pay for duplication of services. I can’t support this budget for that,” Mitrecic said.
