Testimony Before Montgomery County Council on the
FY 2009 Operating Budget and Public Services Program
April 9, 2008
Good afternoon, I am Diane Hibino, President of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County. Thank you for the opportunity to present some of our responses to the proposed FY2009 Operating Budget. As you know, the League studies and takes positions on a wide variety of governmental issues. The following remarks are based on these studies which the League has produced over the past several years.
Before I begin with our specific comments, we would like to point out that the League has long supported the principle of adequate funding of governmental programs through a progressive system of taxation. We recognize that the county is faced with very difficult choices this year because of the eroding economic situation and the resulting decline in tax revenues. We agree with the County Executive that some increase in the county tax rate is appropriate under current circumstances and commend him for structuring the proposed increase in property taxes in a progressive manner so as to limit the burden on lower and fixed income residents.
Board of Elections
The League has first-hand experience through our collaboration with the Board on registration and electoral issues. As we said in last year’s testimony, the "rules of the game" continue to change for the Board, with new interpretations of absentee voting and changing court decisions on the issue of allowing 17-year-olds to vote in the primary, almost up to the day of the primary itself. This becomes a challenge in getting out the latest information to both election judges and the voters at a time when all existing staff are already working nearly around the clock.
We understand the need for reviewing expenses and trying to hold or reduce costs with reduced income forecasts. Nonetheless, our residents need to have confidence that the electoral process is being administered to the best of the Board’s ability, using its personnel and technology as efficiently as possible to provide registration and election services. The high interest in the current presidential campaign has resulted in voter registration in February of 2008 above the end of FY08 estimates. It was the highest primary voting figure since 1976 at 45.43%, with substantially more absentee ballots requested and returned, and provisional ballots required to accommodate voters unfamiliar with our closed primary rules. Both of these categories of ballots require substantially more time to verify and count than the electronic vote, adding to election administration costs.
We urge the Council to fully fund the requests of the Board and would point out that there will be additional costs incurred in this FY to run the two Special Elections to fill the Council District 4 seat. Additionally, a second Special Election may be required to fill the US Congressional District 4 seat. The Board of Elections is not the place to implement cost saving reductions or flat line figures, which could hamper the Board in having all its voting units and electronic poll books prepared for the election. It needs to have the funds to continue the high level of service and security to conduct the presidential election in the fall of 2008 with anticipated high turnouts.
Public Transportation
The use of public transportation continues to grow significantly (currently 15% for rush hour trips and on the rise) and the county continues to concentrate growth near Metro stations. We need to expand transit services. One of the benefits of high density areas is that they increase the viability and visibility of public transportation and possibly contribute to and improved quality of air/global warming with reduced car trips.
Although the budget assumes a modest increase in ridership (about 1.5%) and last fall’s special session of the General Assembly designated an additional $5 million for transit enhancements, the FY09 budget shows an overall decrease in funding for Ride-On Services. It appears that the very minimal increase ($174K) in provided bus services is overwhelmed by making permanent the FY08 bus service reduction decisions ($980K) and reducing the fair share/super fair share program by $491K. Why aren't we increasing bus service to deal with expanding growth and congestion?
The FY-08 CIP budget added funds to design a new southern entrance to the Bethesda Metro. This year’s county CIP budget adds the construction funds for it. This entrance would both aid current riders and will be needed for Purple Line/Red Line transfers in the future. We urge you to approve the funding to continue the momentum on this important project.
League members, like many of you, are concerned about pedestrian safety. We are doing a study on that issue this year and hope to come to you with more specific recommendations in the future.
Affordable Housing
The League supports Montgomery County policies and program to increase the supply of affordable housing. We applaud the goal and emphasis on "Affordable Housing in an Inclusive Community" as stated in the budget for the Department of Housing and Community Affairs. We support the allocation of $54 million to the Housing Initiative Fund. We encourage your efforts to preserve and rehabilitate existing lower cost housing and to produce moderately priced dwelling units and workforce housing.
Services to Children
We
urge increased local support for the Infants and Toddlers program. It
has suffered flat funding from Federal budget and cuts locally. The
program targets infants from birth to age 3, who have at least a 25%
development lag, and also almost all multiple births for the first
year, if no other problems occur. This very successful program
identifies and frequently solves early developmental problems which
could develop into major issues, if ignored, and therefore saves
money and resources as a child grows and develops.
The
Collaboration Council and the League support 1) increasing home
visiting services, helping to support infants to youth and the
prevention of problems at the earliest possible age by bringing early
identification and intervention services, 2) building the after or
out-of-school time system (OOST) to engage middle school students,
particularly and 3) continuing to develop a system of care using the
wrap-around approach which integrates the many different strategies
available and requires interagency collaboration.
Health Services
We are pleased to see that funding has been increased for School Based Health Centers and Linkages to Learning and that all of the 28 Linkages sites are proposed to continue. We are concerned about the $710, 730 reduction to Montgomery Cares and the elimination of two pilot programs. This is a large reduction to an important program. We are also concerned that the increase in the Maternity Partnership co-pay from $250 to $350 will discourage women from seeking pre-natal care.
We are happy to see increases in funding for the Adult Foster Care Program and the maintenance of the Senior Nutrition Program at FY’08 levels but worry about the reduction in Personal Care through In-Home Aide Services from 20 to 15 hours per week.
We support the continued funding for the Adult Drug Court Program and but harbor deep concerns about the loss of the day program at Gude Men’s Shelter.
Environment and Land Use
Recognizing the constraints that are on the budget this year, we still believe that Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning should be a priority. Considering global warming and climate changes, environmental planning which includes design and planning for the future is probably one of the most important things in the budget. The League of Women Voters has long promoted resource conservation, stewardship, and long-range planning and the promotion of public understanding and participation in decision-making as essential elements of responsible and responsive management of natural resources. The Planning Board needs sufficient funds to continue these tasks.
In 2007, the county passed a comprehensive Growth Policy. There are many tasks connected with this that are still to be completed. These tasks must be fully funded for completion. When the Sustainable Quality of Life Indicators are defined, processes for collection of data and analysis will need to be designed. We hope that you will not reduce the current funding proposals for supporting these programs.
Agricultural Reserve; Zoning
The League supports the preparation of Master Plans, Sector Plans and other planning. They should be fully funded. As part of this design, we also support the continuation of the rewrite of the Zoning Ordinance and the development of a Green Infrastructure Functional Master Plan. It is more than a little ironic that the Agriculture Services Division, an organization that as a matter of policy advises landowners to retain their buildable TDRs when a TDR easement is placed on a property, should report land under TDR easement as a preservation accomplishment. Actual progress toward meeting the goal of protecting 70.000 acres of productive farmland should be reported. A more telling measure of the preservation program might be the number of acres converted from farmland and woodland to residential development.
The goal set by this department for FY 2007 of land newly protected by easement was 1463 acres. The actual accomplishment for FY 2007 was 86 acres. It would appear that the department’s projections are unrealistic and perhaps new approaches to protecting agricultural land are appropriate.
In 2006 an Ad Hoc Agricultural Policy Working Group made substantial recommendations on pursuing a variety of courses to protect agricultural land. Little action toward implementing those policies has occurred. The County Executive and the County Council both have a responsibility to address the agricultural land preservation issue in a meaningful way to beneficially utilize the funds available for land preservation and to meet public expectation in government effectiveness.
Fire and Rescue Service
We have supported the concept of ambulance service without fees since 1992. Given the current need for financial belt-tightening, we recognize that there is an argument to be made for additional fees for several county services, including ambulance service. We urge the Council to delay imposition of the ambulance fee until it is possible to look at impacts on service delivery and to provide a greater opportunity for public input.
We note that the $7.048 million gross revenue from the EMS/Ambulance Fee is just slightly less than the increase cost of $7.312 million for FY09 employee compensation. Although this increase includes costs for additional staff, we cannot but wonder that much of the increase in employee compensation is the result of salary and benefit decisions made by prior Councils in "fat money years." In our testimony on the FY08 Fire and Rescue Services budget request, we said we were concerned that the 8.2% increase in the FY08 Operating Budget was far greater than the 6.7% increase in the overall county budget. We asked then how such increases could be sustained and continue to ask.
Although the Fire and Rescue Commission is required by Chapter 21 of the County Code, its duties have greatly changed with the reorganization of the Fire and Rescue Service under a single Chief. Therefore, we applaud the decision to do away with Fire and Rescue Commissioner stipends. We believe that a review of possible future changes in the role and membership of the Fire and Rescue Commission is a worthwhile undertaking.
We recognize there will be much concern from the Glen Echo, Laytonsville and Hillandale Volunteer Fire and Rescue Corporations and the communities they serve as staffing is removed from those stations to support the need for staff at the new West Germantown fire station. Staffing reductions are always difficult but must be balanced by the need for equity in service delivery for the growing up-county area.
Performance Measures
We find that the addition of performance measures for all county departments in the budget document to be welcome and helpful. However, we believe that some of the measures could be improved to be more closely related to the goals of the program and that, where possible, should be compared to regional or national standards.
Thank you for your consideration of the League of Women Voter’s testimony.