Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
St. Mary’s County commissioners advance FY26 budget to public hearing after work session; set revenue baseline at 4.8%
Summary
After a marathon work session, commissioners directed staff to bring the county administrator's recommended budget to public hearing, set a revised revenue baseline of 4.8% and earmarked $1.6 million of fund balance as a placeholder for a volunteer first-responder benefit pilot to be finalized next week.
St. Mary's County Commissioners on March 18 directed staff to take the county administrator's recommended FY26 budget to public hearing while leaving room to adjust after the state budget is finalized.
Commission President Gai and the board spent the session reviewing department essential-cost-change requests, enterprise fund balances and several open items including a proposed volunteer first-responder benefit. After extended discussion about revenue assumptions and fund-balance usage, commissioners signaled support for a revenue baseline of 4.8% growth for planning purposes, up from the 3.8% staff had used earlier, and agreed to hold $1.6 million from fund balance as an earmark for the volunteer benefit pilot pending final design next week.
The county's chief financial staff presented interactive sensitivity models that showed how small shifts in revenue assumptions would change the county's available discretionary dollars. Ray Bivens ran the —plug-and-play— model while Deputy County Administrator Dave Yingling and the county's CFO answered departmental questions. Commissioners debated whether to be conservative (3.8%) or to assume higher growth (4.8— to 5.1—) given uncertainties in state revenues and possible federal workforce changes affecting local income-tax receipts.
President Gai said the board should avoid betting on higher revenues if not confident they will materialize. Commissioner Hewitt and another commissioner argued the county's historic revenue performance and local defense-related jobs supported a higher assumption. Ultimately, commissioners agreed to plan at 4.8% for the draft to public hearing but retained flexibility to revise after additional state information and next week's follow-up meeting.
The work session covered several additional items the board asked staff to include or reserve in the proposed budget: a pilot for volunteer first-responder benefits (earmarked $1.6 million from fund balance), review of nonrecurring capital requests funded from fund balance or financing, and enterprise fund shortfalls that staff proposed to smooth across two years. Staff said the recommended budget as modeled would produce an $81,126 operating cushion under the current assumptions.
The commissioners asked staff to publish the recommended budget for public hearing on or before March 31, and to bring back updated scenarios for final direction at the May 6 meeting. The board also cleared several items to be forwarded to public hearing, including a volunteer rescue-squad tax proposition and the county's Capital Improvement Plan.
Votes at a glance
- Volunteer rescue-squad tax propositions (Hollywood and Leonardtown): motion to forward to public hearing made and seconded; commissioners approved moving both items to public hearing. (Motion recorded; no roll-call tally recorded in the transcript.) - Capital Improvement Plan (FY26-FY30): staff recommendation to forward the plan to public hearing was moved and seconded and approved.
Ending
Staff will publish the recommended budget and related hearing notices; the commissioners will reconvene next week for final adjustments and expect a public hearing on the recommended FY26 budget before the April review window. The board left open changes tied to the state budget and to steps for compensation and enterprise fund smoothing.
